When Spain's Socialist leader appointed a pregnant Defence Minister the conservative Spanish military establishment mostly grinned and bore it. But many members of the armed forces are now angry about Carme Chacón's first act in office - banning them from websites featuring football or naked women.

This week army, navy and air force personnel were blocked from accessing the websites of three publications: Interviú, which is famous for its covers featuring topless models, as well as Marca and As, the popular sports newspapers.

The Defence Ministry said that the ban on websites of a sexual or sporting nature was introduced to conserve internet bandwidth for military business.

At some times of day, it said, the internet was becoming almost impossible to use because of the volume of traffic to “entertainment” websites.

Military personnel suspected a feminist plot to deprive them of their traditional entertainment and many Spanish men viewed the measure as an outright attack.

“Of course, they ban Marca and Interviú, and that is equality,” an internet user, calling himself Carlos, said on one website. “Why don't they ban nurses from accessing Hello! or Ikea's website? That would be sexist, right?”

“There must be an effort to treat people as adults,” Mariano Casado, the general secretary of the Unified Association of Spanish Military Personnel, said.

Others applauded the move, observing that the defenders of the nation should not be surfing the internet for topless models or football scores during their working hours.

“The number of lazy people who go to work simply to use broadband internet is beyond estimation,” an internet user, calling himself Businessman, said. “If all companies took this measure, productivity would surely rise.”

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, the Spanish Prime Minister, named more women than men to his Cabinet this month. The news prompted criticism from Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, who said that the new Government featured too many women.

Ms Chacón, 37, has made an effort to show critics that she is capable of carrying out her duties despite being seven months pregnant. She visited Spanish troops in Afghanistan last week, accompanied by an obstetrician, an anaesthetist and a paediatrician in case she went into early labour.

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