China today called on the international community to work more closely under the UN to improve information security amid global concerns on the activities of Chinese hackers, who are accused of carrying out attacks on India, the US and a host of other nations.

China along with Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan jointly sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon requesting him to circulate an International Code of Conduct for Information Security as a formal UN document of the 66th session of the General Assembly.

"China believes information and internet security is a common challenge facing all countries, thus it can only be effectively coped with through international cooperation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jiang Yu told a media briefing here.

China hopes the code of conduct will provide a foundation for international discussions and calls on countries to continue discussions within the UN framework to reach a consensus on norms and rules to regulate states' conduct for information and cyber activities, Jiang said.

She said that would help promote the information and internet security in all countries and bring common benefits.

According to the document, the code of conduct's purpose is to identify states' rights and responsibilities on the Web, promote constructive and responsible behaviour, and enhance cooperation in addressing the common threats and challenges.

China's proposals came after disclosures by the computer security network giant, McAfee which has complained of biggest ever series of cyber attacks allegedly by Chinese hackers who were found to have broken into networks of the Indian government, the UN and US defence companies.

Targets for the intrusions in a five-year campaign covered 72 major entities around the world, including the governments of India, US, South Korea, Vietnam, ASEAN, IOC and the world anti-doping agency, the McAfee report said while blaming one "state actor" behind the attacks without naming China.

Countering the allegations, China said it suffered about 4.93 lakh such attacks last year, about half of which originated from abroad, particularly from the US and India.

A recent report from Brussels said NATO has sought stronger cooperation with India to counter growing cyber threats, particularly emanating from China.

Top NATO officials listed cyber security very high on the list of possible areas of cooperation, which included counter-terrorism, missile defence and anti-piracy operations.