New Delhi, May 26: BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) today said it could not hand over its encryption keys for decoding messages to any third party.

“The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any other third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances,” the company said in a statement.

The government had asked the Canadian company to provide encryption codes so that security agencies can monitor e-mails between two BlackBerry phones.

RIM has assured that it can set up minor servers in India where e-mails and messages can be stored up to a year, telecom department officials said.

However, the government and RIM need to first arrive at a consensus as to who could access these mails and under what circumstances.

“The location of data centres and customer’s choice of wireless network are irrelevant from a security perspective since end-to-end encryption is utilised,” RIM said in a statement.

Allaying security concerns, the BlackBerry maker said, “RIM’s security design has been scrutinised over the last nine years and has been accepted by security-conscious corporations and governments around the world.”

About the master key, RIM said, “The BlackBerry security architecture is based on a symmetric key system whereby customers create their own keys and only they possesses a copy of their encryption key.” RIM does not possess a “master key”, nor is there any “backdoor” in the system that would allow the manufacturer or any third party to gain unauthorised access to corporate data.