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"I regret that it now appears BOCOG has announced that there will be limitations on Web site access during games time," IOC press chief Kevan Gosper told Reuters, referring to Beijing's Olympic organizers. "I also now understand that some IOC officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered games related."

The revelation came a day after journalists learned that organizers had backtracked on earlier guarantees that journalists would have access to an uncensored Internet at the Main Press Center and athletic venues. The announcement meant that thousands of reporters working in Beijing during the next several weeks won't have access to a multitude of sites deemed embarrassing to the Chinese government, such as Amnesty International or any sites related to the crackdown in Tibet or the banned spiritual group Falun Gong.

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The website of the National Bureau of Corruption Prevention (NBCP) crashed on Tuesday, just hours after its launch, as droves of people logged on to complain about corruption among officials. The website (yfj.mos.gov.cn) was closed for most of the afternoon, Beijing Youth Daily reported. An NBCP official, who did not want to be named, confirmed the breakdown had occurred.

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Fred Tipson, senior policy counsel for the computer giant, said concerns over the repressive regime might force it to reconsider its business in China. "Things are getting bad... and perhaps we have to look again at our presence there," he told a conference in Athens. "We have to decide if the persecuting of bloggers reaches a point that it's unacceptable to do business there." "We try to define those levels and the trends are not good there at the moment. It's a moving target."