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| US ambassador in Germany summoned in Merkel mobile row | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Germany has summoned the US ambassador in Berlin over claims that the US monitored German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone. | |
| Foreign minister Guido Westerwelle will meet US envoy John Emerson later in what is seen as an unusual step between close allies. | |
| Mrs Merkel has demanded a "complete explanation" of the claims, which are threatening to overshadow an EU summit. | |
| She discussed the issue with US President Barack Obama on Wednesday. | She discussed the issue with US President Barack Obama on Wednesday. |
| President Obama told Mrs Merkel the US was not monitoring her calls and would not in future, the White House said. | President Obama told Mrs Merkel the US was not monitoring her calls and would not in future, the White House said. |
| However, it left open the question of whether calls had been listened to in the past. | However, it left open the question of whether calls had been listened to in the past. |
| French President Francois Hollande had already called for the issue to be put on agenda of the summit - where EU leaders are due to discuss Europe's digital economy, economic recovery and immigration - following reports that millions of French calls had been monitored. | |
| Other leaders are also likely to want further clarification from Washington over the activities of its National Security Agency (NSA) in Europe, says BBC Europe Editor Gavin Hewitt. | |
| 'Affront' | |
| State-monitoring of phone calls has a particular resonance in Germany - Mrs Merkel herself grew up in East Germany, where phone-tapping was pervasive. | |
| Her spokesman said the German leader "views such practices... as completely unacceptable" and had demanded a "complete and comprehensive explanation". | |
| "Among close friends and partners, as the Federal Republic of Germany and the US have been for decades, there should be no such monitoring of the communications of a head of government," said Steffen Seibert in a statement. | |
| Veteran French European Commissioner Michel Barnier told the BBC "enough is enough" and that confidence in the US had been shaken. | |
| Mr Barnier, the commissioner for internal market and services, said Europe must not be naive but develop its own strategic digital tools, such as a "European data cloud" independent of American oversight. | |
| The BBC's Stephen Evans in Berlin says Germany's morning papers echo a sense of outrage. | |
| A front-page commentary in Thursday's Sueddeutscher Zeitung - one of the country's most respected papers - refers to the "biggest affront". | |
| It says an attack on Angela Merkel's mobile phone would be an attack on "her political heart". | |
| German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere said it would not be possible to go back to business as usual. This is more than a tiff which will blow over easily, our correspondent says. | |
| In July, German media carried comments by Edward Snowden suggesting the US National Security Agency worked closely with Germany and other Western states on a "no questions asked" basis, monitoring German internet traffic, emails and phone calls. | |
| "They [the NSA] are in bed with the Germans, just like with most other Western states," Mr Snowden was quoted as saying by Der Spiegel magazine - though Mrs Merkel denied any knowledge of the collaboration. | |
| In June, President Obama assured Chancellor Merkel that German citizens were not being routinely spied upon. At the time, she was criticised by her political opponents for not being more sceptical. |