Despite complaints that its shield is built on pirated software, and the fact that it may leave millions of users open to software attack, China is sticking to its planned launch of a controversial Internet censoring software.

In one week the plan to require the Web-filtering Green Dam Youth Escort software on all personal computers sold in China will be enforced. The software has to be pre-installed or included on a compact disc with all PCs sold in China. The announcement that the plan was going ahead came amid efforts by Chinese Web surfers to lobby the communist government to scrap it.

American diplomats met Friday with officials of China's ministries of commerce and information technology to express concern and seek more information about the system. The US Government is concerned about Green Dam both in terms of its potential impact on trade and the serious technical issues raised by use of the software.

Chinese officials say the Internet filtering is an effort to block access to violent and pornographic material and is not part of a control of free speech.