Spying between friends 'just not done': Merkel

Germany chancellor says such conduct between allies is unacceptable.

PARIS/ BRUSSELS: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, reportedly the target of US snooping on her mobile phone, said Thursday that such conduct between friends was unacceptable.

"Spying between friends, that's just not done," Merkel said as she arrived for a two-day European Union summit where the growing spy scandal has hijacked the agenda.

"I said that to US President Barack Obama when he came to Berlin and again on the phone (Wednesday)," Merkel said.

"We need trust between partners and such trust needs to be re-established," she added.

Earlier Thursday, Germany summoned the US ambassador to Berlin after reports said Merkel's mobile phone had been monitored by US intelligence services.

Merkel called Obama on Wednesday to demand an answer, warning that if the charge was proved, it would be considered a "breach of trust", according to a German statement.

The White House said it is not now listening in on Merkel - but also did not reject the possibility her communications may have been intercepted in the past.

Washington also denied reports of eavesdropping on France.

Initially expected to be a routine affair, the summit of all 28 EU leaders has been taken over by the escalating row with Washington, testing ties between longstanding allies.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, pressed leaders for "a strong and united stand" as they gathered.

"Data protection must apply no matter if it concerns the emails of citizens or the mobile phone of Angela Merkel," said EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding.

Alleged US spying on foreign leaders

Washington is under fire from key allies after reports the United States spied on their leaders' communications with concerns being raised beyond the European Union.

The reports are the latest allegations to emerge from fugitive contractor Edward Snowden about a huge US spy programme run by the National Security Agency (NSA).

German chancellor has made her thoughts on the matter clear to US President Obama that she "regards them [tappings] as completely unacceptable," her spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

Merkel demanded answers after learning the NSA might have monitored her phone and warned that would represent a "breach of trust" between international partners.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told media that, "the president [Obama] assured the chancellor the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor."

Brazilian President Dilma Roussef too has sharply criticised the US after the daily O Globo reported in September that the NSA had intercepted some of her e-mails and telephone calls, along with those of close aides.

Roussef cancelled a planned visit to the US, but later addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York and called the spy programme "an affront to the principles...that otherwise govern relations between countries."

On October 15, Brazil said it will activate a secure email system in November to protect government communications from spying by the United States and other countries.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, who took power in December, has ordered an "exhaustive" probe into reports that the NSA hacked his emails while he was a candidate last year, as well as the messages of predecessor Felipe Calderon while in office.

The Mexican investigation will look into whether such spying indeed took place and if any local officials were complicit, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said.

The allegations that Calderon was spied on from May 2010 were reported by German weekly Der Spiegel after a similar report by US journalist Glenn Greenwald last month that Pena Nieto had been targeted by the NSA.

On September 5, Pena Nieto said that Obama promised an investigation into the allegations.

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox said that "of course" he was spied on when he was in power between 2000-2006.

Fox told MVS Radio in Madrid on Wednesday: "It's nothing new that there's espionage in every government in the world, including Mexico. I don't understand the scandal."

In addition, British daily the Guardian said on June 17 that the British authorities had spied on delegates from the Group of 20 richest countries during two meetings in Britain in 2009. According to a secret document from the NSA provided by Snowden, and quoted by the newspaper, the US profited from this to try to listen to the satellite calls to Moscow by the Russian president at the time, Dmitry Medvedev.

France too has reacted strongly over reports that NSA listened to 70 million conversations of French citizens in just one month.