Riga - Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Monday that it was investigating claims that it had fallen victim to a Chinese-based cyber-spying operation.

"There are threats at all times which we monitor and work to avoid," a ministry spokesman told the German press service dpa.

A co-cordinated cyber-spying operation, dubbed "GhostNet" by Canadian researchers who exposed the hi-tech spy ring, infected two computers belonging to the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to a new report.

Other foreign ministries targeted included those of Iran, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Barbados and Bhutan.

The claim was made in a report from the Munk Center for International Studies at the University of Toronto which identified nearly 1,300 infected computers in more than 100 countries.

"GhostNet represents a network of compromised computers resident in high value political, economic and media locations spread across numerous countries worldwide," the report said.

"Almost certainly, documents are being removed without the targets' knowledge, keystrokes logged, web cameras are being silently triggered and audio inputs surreptitiously activated," the report concluded. (dpa)