BEIJING, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Beijing police have arrested a blogger for publishing allegedly pornographic novels on the Internet in the first case of its kind in the Chinese capital.

    The man, surnamed Li, a driver for a private company, posted about 30 pornographic novels on his blog from last August till March, said a spokesman with the Beijing Public Security Bureau without revealing the man's full name.

    Li posted a total of nearly 100 novels he collected from the Internet on his blog, but police only identified 30 of them as pornographic.

    PKsina.com.cn, the website on which Li registered his blog entitled "Dim Moonlight", had promised to pay authors a commission on advertising revenue if their blogs attracted a certain number of readers, Li said.

    The novels Li posted on his blog received about 100,000 clicks before police received complaints in April, the spokesman said.

    He was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of spreading Internet pornography.

    Police said the operators and servers of the website would also be punished.

    China launched a campaign last month to curb the spread of on-line pornography, a move to "purify" the Internet and mobile communication. Police have since closed 1,450 websites and deleted more than 30,000 allegedly obscene messages.

    A student, only identified by his surname Zhu, was detained in the campaign in the eastern province of Shandong on April 12, after he was suspected of operating five pornographic sites, containing almost 170,000 images and film clips, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

    Beijing has banned the sending obscene text messages or pictures via mobile phone. Those who are caught doing so face a fine of up to 3,000 yuan (385 dollars) and two weeks' detention. Those who sell obscene content face jail terms from six months to three years under China's criminal law and the law on public security administration.

    A report by the Beijing Reformatory for Juvenile Delinquents said 33.5 percent of its detainees were influenced by violent on-line games or erotic websites when they committed crimes such as robbery and rape.

    China had 137 million Internet users at the end of 2006, the majority of whom are young people.