BEIJING — Indonesia and China pressured Australia yesterday following allegations that Canberra’s diplomatic posts across Asia, including in Jakarta and Beijing, were involved in a United States-led surveillance network.

Indonesia’s government summoned Australian Ambassador Greg Moriarty to a 20-minute meeting on the claims with the Foreign Ministry’s Secretary General Budi Bowoleksono yesterday. “From my perspective, it was a good meeting and now I have to go and report directly to my government,” Mr Moriarty said afterward.

Indonesian foreign minister Marty Natalegawa said yesterday it is “not cricket” for Australia to spy on the region at the behest of the US.

“If Australia was itself subjected to such an activity do you consider it as being a friendly act or not?” he told reporters in Perth after discussions with his Australian counterpart, Ms Julie Bishop.

Ms Bishop said she took Mr Natalegawa’s concerns “seriously”, “but the Australian government does not and will not comment on intelligence matters”.

The row further tests bilateral ties frayed by new Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s hardline stance on preventing asylum seekers, who leave Indonesia in boats, from arriving in Australia.

US Secretary of State John Kerry admitted on Thursday that US spying had sometimes gone too far. He is the most senior Obama administration official to have commented directly on the scandal involving mass surveillance programmes by the National Security Agency, which has already upset the US’ European allies.

The Sydney Morning Herald on Thursday listed the Australian embassy in Jakarta as one of the embassies being used to intercept phone calls and data, along with those in Bangkok, Hanoi, Beijing and Dili in East Timor; and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

The US embassy in Jakarta has also been identified as a surveillance facility and, earlier this week, Jakarta summoned the US Ambassador over the issue.

Ms Hua Chunying, spokeswoman at China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, told reporters at a regular briefing yesterday: “We require the Australian side to make a clarification.”

“We also urge the diplomatic missions and personnel in China to strictly abide by international treaties including the Vienna Convention.”

A day earlier, she said China required the United States to “make a clarification and give an explanation” regarding the spying claims.

China’s official Xinhua news agency said in a commentary yesterday that the “Peeping Tom” US risks its own security by spying on allies.

“The sole superpower’s spying saga is spicy on a heart-attack scale. It is particularly hurtful to those supposed to trust America the most — its allies,” Xinhua said in an English-language commentary, peppered with colourful language.

“Uncle Sam needs to remember what happened to the tailor in the Lady Godiva story — Peeping Tom was struck blind,” it said.

US Secretary of State John Kerry told a conference in London via video link on Thursday: “The President and I have learned of some things that have been happening, in many ways, on automatic pilot, because the technology is there and the ability is there.”

While defending the need for increased surveillance, saying it had thwarted terrorist attacks, Mr Kerry conceded: “In some cases, some of these actions have reached too far and we are going to try to make sure it doesn’t happen in the future.” AGENCIES