BEIJING - Chinese authorities have seized 180,000 online publications involved in the dissemination of pornographic content since the country launched an Internet clean-up campaign in March.

More than 10,000 websites were punished for law and regulation violations, according to a statement issued by the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications on Wednesday.

The campaign uncovered 5.6 million illegal publications, the statement said.

The office started the campaign against online pornography, illegal online game advertisements, mobile systems applications and online media players in  March.

Though initially scheduled to conclude at the end of May, the campaign will be extended into late June, according to the office.

The office said the next step will involve focusing on cracking key cases of violations and enhancing website management.