WASHINGTON, Oct 23: President Barack Obama assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday the United States is not monitoring her communications, but the White House did not deny reports US spies eavesdropped on her cellphone in the past.

“The president assured the chancellor the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Carney was then asked whether US spy agencies had picked up Merkel’s communications inadvertently, but repeated the linguistic formulation of his earlier answer.

The tenses used by Carney did not rule out reports that the United States eavesdropped on Merkel’s cellphone calls in the past, as reported by Der Spiegel magazine on Wednesday.

The latest embarrassing revelations of activity by the US National Security Agency (NSA) threatened the trust and close cooperation between Obama and Merkel.

The US president considers the newly reelected German leader as one of his closest allies and friends on the world stage and has frequently spoken of his respect for her.

Earlier, Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said that the chancellor called Obama to say she “unequivocally disapproves of such practices, should they be confirmed, and regards them as completely unacceptable.” Berlin had demanded “an immediate and comprehensive explanation” from Washington.

“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,” the statement said.—AFP