BEIJING, Aug 26 - China's Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Wu Jichuan, in a rare official statement about the Internet, asserted Tuesday that Beijing has a "positive attitude" toward the global information network.

"The Chinese government is always of the view that it must take advantage of the Internet while eliminating its shortcomings," he told a media briefing.

Like all other countries, China makes use of the Internet but "adopts measures against anything that is detrimental to the country's security and that goes against the country's traditions," Wu said.

The number of Chinese Internet users and service providers is growing rapidly, but the ministry has kept control of all "gateways" to the outside world.

It has attempted with what appears to be increasing difficulty to weed out access to foreign news sites, pornography and anti-Beijing political sites. Foreign business analysts believe the censorship will disappear within the next few years.

Wu said Beijing had set up Internet sites of its own to disseminate its views on issues like Taiwan and Tibet around the world.

"The Chinese government is trying to make China's situation better-known through the Internet. It spreads facts about China through the Internet so that misunderstandings about China can be corrected," he said.

Internet subscribers in China are expected to number 250,000 by the end of this year, but experts estimate that the number of actual users is more than four times that figure because accounts are often shared.

There are more than 100 service providers in operation across the country.