Five government departments, including the Education Ministry and the Communist Youth League, issued a joint notice ordering the crackdown on "harmful'' publications and electronic products, the People's Daily said.

The campaign, to take place nationwide between now and October, will target books, cartoons, audio-visual products and video games with content featuring pornography, violence and "feudal superstition and false science,'' it said.

Officially, atheist China still regards many religious activities as superstition and often uses this as a pretext to crack down on religious groups.

"Some criminal elements sell and rent out these harmful publications and seriously hurt masses of youths' physical and psychological health. It has also become a main factor of causing youth crimes,'' the paper said.

The campaign is aimed at "purifying the environment in which the youths grow up.''

Apart from intensifying the crackdown on these products, authorities must also step up their supervision of shops selling computer software and video games and target people engaged in producing illegal publications, it said.

President Hu Jintao's government has repeatedly expressed strong concern about the ethical standards of the young, who are increasingly exposed to materialistic values while showing little interest in the communist party's cult of austerity.

Last year, China seized about 230 million illegal publications, including pornographic materials, and shut down 41,000 publishing houses and bookstores, according to state media. AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE