Citing national security, the ministry said it had requested that sites such as air bases and nuclear power stations be obscured on Google's satellite mapping service.

"The Ministry of Defence will sue Google," the spokeswoman said, without giving further details.

Google has complied with similar requests from other governments over concerns its geomapping and granular street-level views could compromise security.

Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.