Polish policemen barred from social networking site

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's national police headquarters has banned officers from using a popular social networking site similar to Facebook because they were spending too much time using it, a newspaper said Monday.

"Like many firms, we decided the site Nasza-klasa.pl is not essential for our employees to fulfill their professional duties," the Dziennik daily quoted police spokesman Mariusz Sokolowski as saying.

An internal investigation had shown police officers were often using Nasza Klasa, or 'our class', for idle chit-chat instead of working, the paper said.

They will still have access to the site after their working day ends. The site will also remain available for officers trying to track down offenders over the Internet, Dziennik said.

Some other Polish state agencies have also blocked access to websites such as YouTube to ensure their workers concentrate on their duties, the paper added.

(Writing by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Stephen Weeks)