Dubai:
Saudi Arabia's telecom regulator said it was giving the country's mobile operators additional time to finalise a deal allowing BlackBerry messaging services to continue.
The kingdom's communications and information technology commission said late on Saturday it was giving telecom companies a grace period of 48 hours - ending Monday - to test "proposed solutions" aimed at averting a ban.
Officials said that device-maker Research in Motion (RIM) had reached a Preliminary agreement with Saudi Arabia that would allow the government some access to user data, and that the authorities were examining how such a system might be implemented.
RIM declined to comment on the state of negotiations. Meanwhile, Kuwait said it had no intention of stopping BlackBerry services for the time-being but was talking to the device's manufacturer about moral and security concerns.
Communications minister Mohammad al-Busairi, who is also the government's spokesman, said Kuwait had "moral and security" concerns about the use of BlackBerry but did not elaborate. He confirmed a report that it had asked RIM to block pornographic sites.
He said RIM had asked Kuwait for four months to deal with its request to block pornographic sites. "We sense cooperation from the company" he said.
The Canadian manufacturer has come under scrutiny from other countries as well, including India, Lebanon and Algeria, regarding access to the company's encrypted network which governments say is important for monitoring possible threats to national security.
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