Washington:
The White House says President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have agreed to a high-level meeting between security officials from their countries in the coming days to discuss reports of surveillance activities by the US National Security Agency.
The two leaders spoke by telephone on Wednesday.
The White House said in a statement that they talked about recent reports that the NSA bugged European Union offices in Washington, New York and Brussels. The revelations were attributed in part to information supplied by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
Last week, Obama pushed back against objections from key allies over reports that the US had installed listening devices in EU offices, suggesting that such activity by government is not unusual.