A Taiwan clinic is liklely to be fined after allowing two of its nurses to pose nude in an advertising campaign.

"Of course we're going to prosecute. What they did violates the law," said Chen Yueh-ying, a Tainan city health department official.

Taiwan businesses often photograph young, fashionably dressed woman for advertisements or put them on stage for promotional events, but they are seldom shown naked.

Chen told Reuters that clinics were not the same as normal businesses, and the adverts fell foul of medical conduct rules.

Taiwan's United Daily News, which carried one of the photos in question today, said the shots had outraged a local nurses association, which complained that their profession's image had been soiled.

The clinic distributed the pictures to media, customers and used them on its website.

It now faces a fine of between T$50,000 ($1,481) and T$250,000, Chen said, although the newspaper went further and suggested it may be shut down.