Research in Motion on Thursday extended a deal to the government of India whereby RIM would head up an industry forum that would assist with the "lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies" while preserving the security needs of its corporate clients.

Research in Motion on Thursday extended a deal to the government of India whereby RIM would head up an industry forum that would assist with the "lawful access needs of law enforcement agencies" while preserving the security needs of its corporate clients.

Earlier this month, that RIM allow Indian law enforcement access to Blackberry Enterprise Service and Blackberry Messenger Service data by Aug. 31, or officials would block BlackBerry services in the country.

"In particular, the industry forum would work closely with the Indian government and focus on developing recommendations for policies and processes aimed at preventing the misuse of strong encryption technologies while preserving its many societal benefits in India," RIM said in a statement.

RIM reiterated, however, that it cannot provide access to encrypted data that travels over its BlackBerry Enterprise Solution network.

"In order to provide corporate customers with the necessary confidence that the transmission of their valuable and confidential data is completely secure, the BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers was purposely designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information," RIM said. "RIM would simply be unable to accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key since at no time does RIM, ever possess a copy of the key."

India's press information bureau has not yet posted a response to RIM's industry forum proposal. In an earlier statement, Shri Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communications and IT, said the Indian government has asked telecom service providers "to provide technical solutions for interception and monitoring of certain services having complex encryption provided through Blackberry devices in readable format to law enforcement agencies. In case no solution is provided these services may be banned by the government."

"Finding the right balance to address both regulatory and commercial needs in this matter is an ongoing process and RIM has assured the government of India of its continued support and respect for India's legal and national security requirements," RIM said in its statement.

RIM also said that banning encrypted services would "severely limit the effectiveness and productivity of India's corporations." The company insisted that it is not the only provider to use encryption technologies, so "singling out and banning one solution, such as the BlackBerry solution, would be ineffective and counter-productive."

It would also disrupt the daily business activities of Indian customers "without ever achieving the stated objective," RIM said.

RIM denied that locating its infrastructure within India would help the problem because "all data remains encrypted at all times and through all points of transfer between the customer's BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the customer's device."

The company also denied that is has made deals with certain countries and not others. "RIM maintains a consistent global standard for lawful access requirements that does not include special deals for specific countries," the company said.

Accusations of special deals first arose when the United Arab Emirates , effective Oct. 11. General Mohamed Al Ghanim, director of the country's Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, said RIM provided other countries with access to its network; RIM denied it.

The UAE's decision to block BlackBerry services was followed by a . The country planned to block access by Aug. 6, but officials later inside the kingdom while talks continued.