Beijing - China's web portals have blocked prayers, blessings and other comment on the death of Pope John Paul II from being posted on the Internet, officials said on Monday.

While popular portals such as Sina.com and Sohu.com's online discussion forums were flooded with messages about the pope on Saturday, no messages could be seen on Monday.

An official with Sohu.com confirmed the company had censored the comments, using sophisticated technology to allow only the writer to see his or her own comments.

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