Search engine temporarily missing

Google's English-language website google.com was not accessible for more than two hours last night on the Chinese mainland, days after the government ordered the US search engine to suspend part of its service to cut access to pornographic links.

Users were unable to log in from about 9 pm yesterday, nor could they access gmail, Google's email service. However, access to Google China's website, google.cn, was not affected.

Cui Jin, spokeswoman for Google China, confirmed that access was cut but would not speculate if it was linked to the government order on cleaning up its act.