Iran has banned thousands of books, from acclaimed works from homegrown novelist Sadegh Hedayat to best-sellers like The Da Vinci Code, with the culture minister calling publishers "assistants for evil."

Publishing houses in Iran warned on the weekend that they are undergoing increasing government censorship and fear recently introduced restrictions could kill their industry.

A new edict sent down from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prohibits works that are deemed too Western or allegedly make Iranians feel inferior.

The warning from the publishers came at the end of Iran's national book week, during which Culture Minister Mohammed Hossein proclaimed that publishers should stop serving a "poisoned dish to the young generation."

'Publishers are being hurt'

Several companies say the government has banned thousands of books of popular fiction as well as classics such as William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and books by well-known Iranian authors such as the works of Sadegh Hedayat, a novelist whose works have been translated in Europe.

"Publishers are being hurt," Mohammed Ali Jafarieh, the head of Sales publishing house, told Britain's the Guardian newspaper in a report published Saturday.

"We had adapted to the previous policy but now that is annulled and they are imposing their own personal taste," said Jafarieh in reference to officials from the country's culture ministry.

Books on the blacklist include Farsi-language translations of the bestseller Girl With a Pearl Earring, which was made into a movie starring Scarlett Johansson in 2003, and Dan Brown's runaway hit, The Da Vinci Code.

As well, books featuring lyrics by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Doors, Black Sabbath, Guns 'n' Roses and Queen have been removed from stores. Shops were ordered to clear the shelves of those books or face closure and publishers are not allowed to reprint any of those books.

Publishers rely on popular books to shore up the rest of their business.

Books encourage youth to be immoral: Hossein

The culture minister accused Iranian publishing houses of encouraging young people to mimic Western culture — encouraging them to engage in immoral behaviour and to mock religious traditions.

"We have complaints against those who see books as only a market and are acting as assistants for evil," said Hossein. "Sometimes the humiliation of Iranian youth is implied or suggested in the books."

Ahmadinejad, a hard-liner who was elected in August 2005, has been increasingly restricting the arts.

His government introduced new guidelines forbidding films that promote the "ideas of secular people, feminists, liberals, nihilists and those that degrade Eastern culture."

It then banned Western music from the country's radio and TV stations in December 2005.