Bill Gates, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and South African President Thabo Mbeki were among thousands of government and business leaders reportedly targeted by hackers who obtained credit card details on glitterati attending the World Economic Forum.

It appeared that hackers had obtained "proprietary data like credit card numbers" of 1,400 prominent people, organizers of the annual meeting of global leaders in the Swiss Alps said Monday, though declining to mention names of those who might have been violated.

But a spokesman said that apparently no sensitive details were obtained on thousands of other participants in recent meetings of the World Economic Forum, including former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

"We regard this as a serious crime, not as a prank," said Charles McLean, chief spokesman for the World Economic Forum.

McLean said the forum, a foundation that conducts the annual meeting in the Swiss ski resort of Davos each January, would have its lawyers file for an injunction later Monday to stop further dissemination of the data obtained.

McLean said details published Sunday in the weekly SonntagsZeitung based in Zurich, Switzerland, appeared to be largely correct, but that apparently nothing sensitive on Clinton had been obtained.

The newspaper's reporters said they had been shown data on a CD-ROM containing 80,000 pages of information, including information on Clinton, who was the featured speaker at Davos a year ago.

SonntagsZeitung said the CD-ROM contained data on 27,000 people, including former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Mbeki, Arafat, Li Peng, second in the Communist Party hierarchy, Microsoft founder Gates and other top corporate executives. The paper said the material had been collected by anti-globalization protesters.

McLean said a preliminary investigation indicated the main concern was for the 1,400 whose credit card numbers were disclosed.

He said the security breach was in "a remnant database that contained information about participants at some of our regional meetings that had been held in the year 2000."

"So it seems as if the hackers were able to penetrate that particular database and obtain this information," McLean said. "They did not penetrate our main database; they did not penetrate the Davos database, apparently."

McLean said it was apparently incorrect to suggest that Clinton's privacy or security had been compromised.

"Bill Clinton didn't come to any of our regional meetings, so I think that's wrong," McLean said. "But as a matter of policy we will not be commenting on any specific individuals because the privacy of those people whose security was violated, we're not going to compromise it any further."

Swiss authorities said they were investigating to determine whether the government should prosecute the hackers on grounds of invasion of privacy.

"We don't know who was responsible for this," said McLean. "We are going to be investigating this thoroughly and we anticipate further legal action."

Opponents who have mounted demonstrations against the forum maintain that it is an exclusive club acting in the interests of big business and against the world's poor.

"In many cases they have a list of names, and that probably won't cause any serious problems, but for about 1,400 people they have some proprietary data like credit card numbers and other information which does concern us obviously a great deal," McLean said.

The forum is e-mailing affected individuals and setting up a hot line for executives to phone if they want further details, he said.

SonntagsZeitung said the data obtained also included numbers of passports and personal cellular phones.

Some 3,200 people attend the six-day meeting to exchange ideas on the world economy.