CONFIDENTIAL Australian diplomatic cables and police documents were left in open files on a computer and read by guests at a hotel in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.

At least 20 police photographs of the charred bodies of plane crash victims, including those of two Victorians, were also left in open files on a computer and could be seen by guests for three weeks. The security breach included information about an Australian Federal Police agent meeting a CIA operative in Kathmandu last month.

In a personal email that was left on a computer at Kathmandu's Radisson Hotel, an Australian agent expressed surprise at meeting the CIA operative who "looks like a bit of a footy jock but covered with some huge … tattoos (stacks of them) and dressed like a total backpacker".

The security breach included a seven-page document detailing priorities and strategies for the AFP's office in Bangladesh, including information about sharing intelligence with foreign agencies.

One document marked "protected" detailed a meeting an AFP agent had with a secret foreign military organisation where sensitive security intelligence was discussed, including recent terrorist attacks in India.