Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has said he suspects suppressing political criticism is a factor behind the move to block YouTube and Facebook in Pakistan in the name of Islam.

"I'm always suspicious of these broad bans," Schmidt told a gathering at non-profit public policy institute New America Foundation, of which he is chairman of the board.

"In every case we looked at, there is an official reason then another reason. There is an awful lot of political criticism they are blocking at the same time. I am very suspicious here."

The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) banned access to Facebook, YouTube and more than 450 links, including restricted access to Wikipedia in view of what it called "growing sacrilegious content".

A Facebook page that fuelled rage and protest in Pakistan was gone from the popular online social networking service on yesterday but the popular social networking service said it remained blocked in that country.

The Facebook user that organised an "Everyone Draw Mohammed Day" competition to promote "freedom of expression" evidently took down the page along with a separate blog about the campaign.