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The White House said Monday it thwarted a cyber-attack against one of its unclassified computer systems, Fox News reported.

The report followed claims on rightwing blogs that Chinese hackers had targeted extremely sensitive White House computers systems including ones used by the military to command the country's nuclear arsenal.

However, White House officials speaking on background to Fox News and other US media said the attack had targeted unclassified systems and had been repelled.

The report said that the attack was launched via an infected email in a technique known as spear-fishing in which opening a seemingly innocuous email exposes the target to a malicious website or code that can penetrate cyber defenses.

A White House official said that the system involved was not a sensitive nuclear system, and no evidence indicated that information was actually taken.

"In this instance the attack was identified, the system was isolated, and there is no indication whatsoever that any exfiltration of data took place," a White House official said. "Moreover, there was never any impact or attempted breach of any classified system."