US President Barack Obama played down a controversy over whether Washington had spied on its European allies, saying intelligence services around the world - including in the EU - seek additional insight beyond regular media reports.

Story: US President Barack Obama played down a controversy over whether Washington had spied on its European allies, saying on Monday intelligence services around the world - including in the EU - seek additional insight beyond regular media reports.

Obama, speaking at a news conference in Tanzania, said the United States would contact its European counterparts to address their concerns after studying allegations in a recent magazine article about the spying.

"I think we should stipulate that every intelligence service, not just ours, but every European intelligence service, every Asian intelligence service, wherever there's an intelligence service, here's one thing they're going to be doing: they're going to be trying to understand the world better and what's going on in world capitals around the world," he said.

The US president also repeated that Washington was working through law enforcement channels to prod Russia to extradite former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.