The company had spoken with Thai communications minister Sitthichai Pookaiyaudoom about the ban, which was imposed Wednesday after a user posted a video deemed here as offensive to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, YouTube spokeswoman Julie Supan said.

 "Minister Sitthichai reported that his government is inflexible on the blocking of individual objectionable videos, and that the ministry's technical people have difficulty understanding how to block individual videos," she said in an email to AFP.

 "While we will not take down videos that do not violate our policies, and will not assist in implementing censorship, we have offered to educate the Thai ministry about YouTube and how it works," she said.

 "It's up to the Thailand government to decide whether to block specific videos, but we would rather that than have them block the entire site," she added.

 Four more videos have been posted to the site mocking the king, but also taking aim at Thailand's strict lese majeste law, which is rigorously enforced against anyone deemed to have offended the royal family.

 The site, accessed from Bangkok through a foreign server, now has seven clips mocking the monarch.

 Although the original clip has been removed by the user who created it, the others are similar, often showing pictures of the king next to images of feet -- seen as deeply offensive in Thailand.

 The ban on YouTube has sparked a fierce debate over freedom of speech on the Internet, and on Thailand's effort to enforce a law that dates from the time of absolute monarchy more than 75 years ago in the era of a modern global media.

 Thailand's king, almost universally adored by Thais, is the world's longest-reigning monarch, and one of the few who is still protected by tough laws that prohibit any insult against the royal family.

 The ban came a week after Thailand jailed a Swiss man for 10 years for insulting the king by vandalising his portraits during a drunken spree.

Agence France Presse