A British-made iPhone program has been banned by Apple - because it could allow people to read the Kama Sutra.

Eucalyptus, a book reading application developed by Edinburgh programmer James Montgomerie, allows users to download and read thousands of classic titles from the library of Project Gutenberg, the respected website that hosts out of copyright books.

But after repeated attempts to get Eucalyptus onto the iPhone's popular App Store, Montgomerie was told that his application was being rejected because one of Gutenberg's books happens to be Sir Richard Burton's 1883 translation of the famous guide to sex.

In a series of emails, Apple told Montgomerie that allowing access to the Kama Sutra meant that the program "contains inappropriate sexual content", in violation of the rules for iPhone software.

However, not only does Eucalyptus not actually contain the book itself - users would have to actively find it and then download it - but the same title is already accessible through a number of other popular ebook applications for the iPhone, and even through the handset's web browser.

"I'm frustrated that they would want to censor that, especially because there are so many other ways of getting the same content," Montgomerie told the Guardian. "I wouldn't call it a mistake, because it was quite deliberate obviously, but I think it was just a misinterpretation of what should happen."

The 29-year-old - who used to work for Apple as a software developer - says he did not even realise the Kama Sutra was part of the Gutenberg project. Indeed, it is so buried in the library's 28,000 titles that he was surprised that an Apple employee managed to find it before deeming it unsuitable.

"I'd never even thought about searching for it before," he said. "You have to type either "kama' or 'sutra' before it appears. It doesn't seem likely that they were searching for something else and yet it seems absurd that they were searching for that."

The news comes just weeks after Apple was forced into an embarrassing U-turn when it had to ban the controversial "Baby Shaker' application after approving it. The 99-cent game, which simulated shaking a baby to death, highlighted growing concern over Apple's inconsistent policies.

Montgomerie told the Guardian that although the situation has left him frustrated, it will not put him off developing for the iPhone. As a temporary solution to the problem, he has submitted a new version of Eucalyptus to Apple which specifically blocks the Kama Sutra - and says he hopes that bureaucracy will not get in the way this time.

"I would like to think that someone, somewhere at Apple would realise just how flawed the whole approval process is, and do something to change it," he said. "It does seem like it could be a lot better without having to spend too much extra money on it. They could make the whole thing a lot more pleasant."

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

