A U.S. congressional advisory panel says Chinese espionage poses the single greatest risk to U.S. technology and has called for efforts to protect industrial secrets and computer networks.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued its assessment in a report to Congress Thursday.

The panel accuses China of carrying out an "aggressive" and "large-scale" campaign to obtain sensitive U.S. information through cyber attacks and other methods.

It also says industrial espionage has enabled China to modernize its military at a faster pace than U.S. officials had expected.

A published report in the Financial Times newspaper earlier this year said China's military had successfully hacked into U.S. Defense Department computers. China has denied any spying activities.

The advisory panel, appointed by Congress in 2000, says U.S. lawmakers should boost funding for counterintelligence work and for enforcing controls on exports of U.S. technologies.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.