DENVER (USA): US Soldiers serving overseas will lose some of their online links to friends and loved ones back home under a US Department of Defence policy that a high-ranking Army official said would take effect on Monday.

The Defence Department will begin blocking access worldwide to YouTube, MySpace and 11 other popular websites, according to a memo sent on Friday by Gen. B.B. Bell, the US Forces Korea commander. The policy is being implemented to protect information and improve security, as well as reduce drag on the department’s networks.

8220¡°This recreational traffic impacts our official network and bandwidth ability, while posing a significant operational security challenge,8221¡± Bell said in the memo.

Members of the military can still access the sites on their own computers and networks — but Defence Department computers and networks are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan. The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.—AP