Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard, however, said during a last month that her government supports the ban to block Huawei from participating in the broadband project. She declined to offer details on how the decision was made, calling it a national security matter.

"We have made decisions in the national interest," she said. "Any suggestion that this is somehow in breach of our trade obligations is simply untrue."

Concerns about Huawei as a security threat have been raised in many markets including the U.S., where the Department of Commerce the company last year from participating in a project to build a national wireless network, citing security reasons.

A top Huawei competitor is also critical of the company. Cisco's chief executive John Chambers is to have said at a Wall Street Journal event that the Chinese company doesn't always "play by the rules" in areas such as intellectual property protection and computer security. Chambers didn't cite specific instances.