LA PAZ, July 13: Bolivia's leftist president Evo Morales accused US intelligence on Saturday of hacking into the email accounts of top Bolivian officials, saying he had shut his own account down.

Latin American leaders have lashed out at Washington over recent revelations of vast surveillance programs, some of which allegedly targeted regional allies and adversaries alike.

Bolivia has joined Venezuela and Nicaragua in offering asylum to Edward Snowden, the former IT contractor for the US National Security Agency who publicized details of the programs and is now on the run from espionage charges. Morales said that he learned about the alleged US email snooping at the Mercosur regional summit in Montevideo earlier this week.

“Those US intelligence agents have accessed the emails of our most senior authorities in Bolivia, Morales said in a speech. “It was recommended to me that I not use email, and I've followed suit and shut it down,” he said.

Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman told the same summit that more than 100 of his country's officials were under electronic surveillance from a nation he did not name.—AFP