A television news spoof that told Belgians their country was being split in two has the nation reeling.

The Wednesday evening newscast on public television station RTBF ran a report saying the Flemish-speaking half of the country (predominantly in the north) had declared independence from the French-speaking region.

The report included footage of what appeared to be King Albert II and Queen Paola fleeing the country on a military plane, noisy pro-monarchy demonstrations and trucks blocked at Belgium's new "border."

But the spoof, meant to provoke debate, was far too convincing for some viewers.

A headline in the Thursday issue of the daily Le Soir proclaimed "Belgium died last night."

Thousands of people made panicked calls to the station and politicians have complained the stunt was irresponsible.

Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt's office described the program as a "misplaced joke."

"It's very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste," said a spokesman for the prime minister, referring to the famous 1938 radio adaptation of War of the Worlds, which convinced many Americans that Martians had invaded.

Belgian embassies across the world called authorities back home to ask whether the country's complex federal system, which unites three cultural groups and 10 provinces, had collapsed.

Halfway through the video the words "This is fiction" appeared on the screen, at the insistence of Minister for Media Affairs Fadila Laanan.

"I find it questionable to use such a tactic, which frightened people unbelievably," she said in an interview with BBC.

RTBF defended the spoof as a means of provoking debate on cultural differences and the country's nascent separatist movement.

The fake newscast showed the "importance of a topical political debate, the debate about the future of Belgium," said Yves Thiran, the station's information and ethics director.

With a general election six months away, Thiran said he hoped to encourage the public to talk about the issues, which are otherwise debated only in academic circles.

Belgians are keenly aware of their political and cultural differences and viewers from both French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders objected to the broadcast.

The complex federal system, created in 1831, was amended as recently as 1993 and even political parties are divided along linguistic lines.

Elections in the economically powerful Flemish north frequently reveal strong support for separation and a Flemish party controls a quarter of seats in parliament.

A parliamentary commission has been asked to review footage from the RBTF spoof.