SHANGHAI, Apr 27 (AP) -- China will soon enact new regulations aimed at curbing online piracy of copyrighted material that will hold Web sites responsible for stolen material, state media reported Wednesday.

The "Administrative Measures on Internet Copyright Protection" are due by the end of April, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, as saying.

The measures are among several new initiatives announced as China comes under renewed pressure from the United States and other trading partners to curb rampant theft of copyright, trademarks and other intellectual property.

Internet service providers, or ISPs, whose portals are used to spread pirated information will not be held accountable, Yan said.

"The Web sites providing pirated information should bear major responsibility, and the ISPs who are passively spreading the information will be exempted from punishment," Yan was quoted as telling a conference Tuesday in Beijing.

While promising better enforcement of its anti-piracy laws, China is also cracking down on unauthorized Web sites, the report said.

China had more than 600,000 Web sites by the end of 2004, but only 8,000 were legally registered, it said, citing statistics from the Ministry of Information Industry.

Details of how the new regulations would be enforced were not given.