An electronic spying operation based primarily in China has infiltrated government and private computers in 103 countries around the world, including those of the Dalai Lama, The New York Times has reported.

Citing a report prepared by Canadian researchers and due to be issued this weekend, the paper said the system was being controlled from computers based almost exclusively in China.

However the researchers said that they could not argue conclusively that the Chinese government was involved, according to the report.

The investigation by specialists based at the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto started when the office of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, asked them to examine its computers for signs of malicious software.

Their work led them to a broader operation that had infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries in less than two years, The Times said.

Many of these computers belonged to embassies, foreign ministries and other government offices, as well as the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centres in India, Brussels, London and New York.

The researchers said they believed that in addition to the spying on the Dalai Lama, the system, which they called GhostNet, was focused on the governments of South Asian and Southeast Asian countries, the paper noted.

The newly reported spying operation is by far the largest to come to light in terms of countries affected, according to The Times.

The operation continues to invade and monitor more than a dozen new computers a week, said the paper, citing the report.

The researchers found no evidence that US government offices had been infiltrated, although a NATO computer was monitored by the spies for half a day and computers of the Indian Embassy in Washington were infiltrated, The Times said.