New Delhi  - The Canada-based manufacturer of Blackberry mobile phones has rejected a demand by Indian authorities to help decrypt text messages on security concerns, news reports said Tuesday.

The company, Research-in-Motion (RIM), said the security structure of its technology does not allow any third party - even the company itself - to read information sent over its network, the Hindu Business Line newspaper reported.

"The Blackberry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances," the company was quoted by the Times of India as saying.

India's Department of Telecom (DoT) had earlier asked RIM to give decryption codes to Indian security agencies to enable them to intercept and access data being sent through Blackberry.

Indian security agencies complained that militants and criminals could use the Blackberry technology in planning attacks or crimes.

The DoT had asked the Canadian firm to provide the master key so they could access contents transferred over handheld devices.

The main problem is that Indian agencies do not have technology required to monitor data that has encryption codes higher than 40 bits.

RIM said that it was offering services in 135 countries and various governments around the world had their own resources to "snoop" into telecom networks without compromising commercial security requirements, Businessline said in its report.

In India, the Blackberry services are provided by four mobile services providers. There are about 400,000 Blackberry customers in India, which is the world's second-largest phone market after China with more than 261 million users. (dpa)