National Security Administration whistle blower Edward Snowden claimed that Australia's intelligence agency had tried to spy for 15 days in August 2009 on the personal phone calls of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

The information, reported by The Guardian, was based on documents from Mr Snowden dated November 2009. It will likely further sour diplomatic relations between Jakarta and Canberra, already damaged by initial reports that the Australian embassy in Indonesia allowed itself to be used for U.S. espionage.

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The report triggered recent attacks on Web sites of thousands of small Australian businesses, with the group Anonymous Indonesia claiming responsibility for the hacking incidents.

Besides Mr Yudhoyono, the Aussie spy agencies also tried to eavesdrop on the mobile phone calls of the president's wife, Kristiani Hirawati, 9 senior ministers, including Vice President Soedono, and close staff.

These materials are in a slide presentation with the marking "Top Secret" from the Australian Department of Defence and the Defence Signals Directorate. The subject of the document was interception of mobile phones at a time when 3G technology was being introduced in Asia.

Other Indonesian officials on the surveillance list were then Foreign Affairs spokesman Dino Patti Djalal who recently resigned as Indonesian ambassador to the U.S. and could possibly run for president under the Democratic Party, and Hatta Rajasa, the current minister for economic affairs and could be the standard bearer of the National Mandate Party. Mr Rajasa's daughter is married to Mr Yodhoyono's youngest son.

Last week, the Indonesian vice president, while on an official visit in Canberra, was quoted as saying, "Yes, the public in Indonesia is concerned about this ... but I think we must look t come to some arrangement that guarantees intelligence information from each side is not used against the other."

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