Germany requested the meeting with the Ambassador of America to discuss the

Critics have accused Chancellor Angela Merkel’s staff of giving the German BND foreign intelligence agency the green light to help the NSA spy on European firms and officials, triggering a scandal that has dented Merkel’s popularity.

“Beyond that, the cooperation between German and American intelligence services that is essential for the security of our citizens is burdened by such repeated incidents”, Mr Seibert added.

The government’s statement came after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Peter Altmaier, met with U.S. Ambassador John Emerson at the Berlin chancellery to discuss newly leaked documents that appeared to show American surveillance of senior German officials.

The new revelations have sparked criticism in Germany.

It said the complaint is initially directed against “unknown persons” but that it hopes to compel the government to provide further information that would identify those it claims broke German laws on espionage and communications privacy.

Germany’s furor over NSA activities here began with ex- intelligence contractor Edward Snowden’s disclosures of US overseas surveillance programs in the summer of 2013.

WikiLeaks said 69 telephone numbers of government ministries, including the economy and finance ministries, had been found in secret NSA files.

Among the officials targeted were the economy minister and as well as several deputy ministers, the reports said.

No direct quotes are used to back up the assessments made in the phone call summary, believed to have taken place between Dr Merkel and an assistant during a trip to Vietnam in 2011.

Patrick Sensburg, CDU/CSU lawmaker and head of the German parliamentary committee investigating the NSA activities, also demanded an explanation from the U.S.

A year ago, Germany’s chief prosecutor opened an investigation into the claims that NSA spied on Merkel’s mobile phone.

The allegations, which surfaced Thursday on the website of WikiLeaks, prompted a cautious response from State Department spokesman John Kirby, who sought to downplay the development by stressing that the US and Germany have already addressed past spying allegations and are “going to continue to work past this”.

Merkel herself phoned US President Barack Obama over the 2013 revelations and in public told Germany’s traditional post-war ally and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partner that “spying between friends just isn’t on”.