Vietnamese internet cafe owners who allow their customers to visit anti-government or pornographic websites could face stiff penalties.

According to the Lao Dong newspaper, owners will also need to obtain special licences which involve checks into their personal history.

The Vietnamese government has just completed a three-week inspection of internet cafes in the country's 61 cities and provinces, and generally found them running acceptably, the paper reported.

Most customers in the country's estimated 4,000 internet cafes are students between the ages of 14 and 24, according to a ministry inspector.

About 70 per cent use the internet for chatting, 10 per cent for games and 10 per cent for email, he said. Only 10 per cent actually surf websites, but half of these access sites with anti-government or pornographic content, he claimed.

The government is now planning to crack down on people accessing "poisonous and harmful" information.

State-owned Vietnam Data Communications, the country's only internet gateway, will block anti-government sites.