The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the Australian Security Intelligence Organization had planted a network of fiber optic listening devices in the embassy in Canberra while it was being built in the late 1980s.
"During construction, it's alleged, state-of-the-art bugging equipment was hidden inside the embassy by ASIO," the ABC said, citing unidentified intelligence sources. "A network of fibre optic bugs [was] laid throughout the building."
Government attempts to quash the story, including a legal threat against ABC, proved fruitless. It ran on a special broadcast before the main evening news.
The ABC report said the bugs relayed information from the embassy to a receiver at the rear of the neighboring British High Commission before being beamed direct to the National Security Agency in Washington.
It said the operation, which involved listening devices in floors, walls, ceilings and the ambassador's office, was run by the Americans.
Australia, the United States, Britain and Canada share certain intelligence under a Cold War-era accord.
Officials from the Chinese and U.S. embassies and British mission were not available for comment.
Prime Minister Paul Keating, visiting Tokyo, declined to comment. "I have no intention of commenting on intelligence and security matters here or at home," he told reporters.
The report said Australia received only filtered information gathered in the operation back from the United States, which caused concern among some Australian intelligence officers who feared Washington might have an advantage over Australia in trade talks with China.
The report followed a story that appeared in Thursday's Sydney Morning Herald about how Australian embassies were found to be bugged and monitored in countries: China, Russia, Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Vietnam, Burma and Poland. (Reuters, AP)
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