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France summons U.S. ambassador over spying report

22 October 2013 02:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. France summoned the U.S. ambassador on Monday after Le Monde newspaper reported the huge scale of alleged American spying on French citizens, with Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius calling the revelations unacceptable, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Le Monde said the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) recorded 70.3 million items of French telephone data between December 10, 2012 and January 8, 2013 and had collected tens of thousands of French phone records.

Its targets appeared to be individuals suspected of links to terrorism, but also people tied to French business or politics, the paper said.

The allegations tested France's relations with Washington just as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Paris for the start of a European tour over Syria.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the Le Monde report on Monday had revealed "unacceptable practices".