KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysia has protested to the United States Embassy and Australian High Commission over spying allegations, as a row over a vast US-led surveillance network deepened in Asia.

“It is a form of protest note (and) we have asked the Foreign Ministry to make a statement accordingly,” Prime Minister Najib Razak said at a press conference yesterday. “In principle, we object to any form of spying and surveillance on any government.

“This deals with the sovereignty of our country and our country has had a good relationship with these two countries,” he was quoted as saying by The Star.

On Saturday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said his country had summoned the US and Australian mission heads to “hand over a protest note in response to the alleged spying activities carried out by the two embassies in Kuala Lumpur”.

The White House has faced criticism for the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance practices since the first revelations by former agency contractor Edward Snowden in June.

Transatlantic tensions reached boiling point after a report was published in the Sydney Morning Herald that clandestine surveillance facilities were operating at Australian diplomatic sites throughout Asia.

Australia’s Fairfax Media reported that the embassies involved are in Beijing, Jakarta, Bangkok, Hanoi and Dili in East Timor; and High Commissions in Kuala Lumpur and Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

Indonesia also summoned the Australian and US mission heads, while China has called for “clarification” from both sides.

There has also been particular anger in Germany, a close ally of the US, over allegations that the NSA monitored Chancellor Angela Merkel’s mobile phone.

NSA documents suggest that Britain is operating its own covert listening station close to the German Parliament and Ms Merkel’s offices in the Chancellery, using high-tech equipment housed on the embassy roof, the Independent has reported. Agencies