SYDNEY (AFP) - Chinese spies tried to infiltrate Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's email and mobile phone communications on his visit to Beijing last year, The Australian newspaper reported Friday.

Rudd and his travelling party were under constant cyber attack while attending the Olympic Games in August, the paper added, quoting unidentified intelligence sources.

The prime minister, speaking from London where he attended the G20 summit, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation he had not been informed about the spying attempts.

"No security concerns that I'm aware of have been raised with me or my office," he said.

But he noted that a national security statement released by the government last December "clearly identified the threat of cyber attacks in Australia and clearly stated the following: 'This challenge must be and will be met with full vigour'."

Beijing also made repeated attempts to break into government and business IT networks as well as foreign embassies based in Canberra, The Australian said.

The spying allegations come amidst intense focus on Australia's ties to China, with Mandarin-speaking Rudd accused by the opposition of being too close to Beijing.

He was described as acting like a "roving ambassador" for Beijing when he pressed for China to be given a bigger role in the International Monetary Fund.

Then, newspapers discovered that two senior Chinese government officials had travelled to Australia for talks with Rudd without local reporters being informed of the meetings.

Shortly before that, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon's failure to declare two trips to China paid for by a Beijing-born businesswoman more than four years ago ballooned into a "spy" scandal.

Looming over all these issues is that Chinese companies have moved to snap up debt-laden Australian resources firms in recent months, including a bid from Chinalco to invest 19.5 billion US dollars in mining giant Rio Tinto.

The spending spree has been accompanied by allegations that China enjoys too much influence over the government and claims that Australia is "selling the farm" to the highest bidder.

China's ambassador to Australia, Zhang Junsai, sought to ease concerns this week and expressed concerns about the "emotive language" currently driving the debate.

"Chinese companies in Australia, state-owned or private, do not seek to control Australia's energy or mineral resources," he said.