In response to Goggle's refusal to block access to anti-Islam film, Iran blocked Monday access to Google's and Gmail service.

This comes as the Islamic republic announced its intention to establish a walled-off national intranet separate from the worldwide Internet.

Access to Google's search page (www.google.com) was also restricted to its unsecured version, web users in Iran found. Attempts to access it using a secure protocol (https://www.google.com) were also blocked.

The curbs were announced in a mobile phone text message quoting Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, an adviser to Iran's public prosecutor's office and the secretary of an official group tasked with detecting illegal Internet content.

"Due to the repeated demands of the people, Google and Gmail will be filtered nationwide. They will remain filtered until further notice," the message read.

In parallel, Iran is working on rolling out its national intranet that will be clean of un-Islamic content. Officials stress that it will be faster and more secure.

Mohammad Soleimani, a lawmaker heading a parliamentary communication committee, was quoted this week by the ISNA news agency as saying that "the establishment of the 'National Internet' will not cut access to the Internet."

He added: "Cutting access to the Internet is not possible at all, because it would amount to imposing sanctions on ourselves, which would not be logical. However, the filtering will remain in place."