The smartphone services of BlackBerry posed a security threat to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), government officials said in statements carried Monday by local media.

"Certain BlackBerry applications allow people to misuse the service, causing serious social, judicial and national security repercussions," according to a government statement.

The government said its concerns rested with how data on the network is managed and stored, and specifically, that it was kept outside of the Emirates.

Research in Motion (RIM), the Canadian firm that makes the device, uses a high level of encryption on data transfers, which for some users is a key selling point, but is seen by various Middle Eastern and Asian governments as a problem and a method to circumvent security forces.