US seeks to reassure France on spying, Assange urges action

President Barack Obama on June 24 moved to defuse tensions after revelations of US spying on three French presidents angered France, while WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called for legal action over Washington's snooping and promised more disclosures to come.

Obama spoke by phone with his French counterpart Francois Hollande to assure him the US was no longer spying on European leaders, a day after the WikiLeaks website published documents alleging Washington had eavesdropped on the French president and his two predecessors.
 
"President Obama reiterated without ambiguity his firm commitment... to stop these practices that took place in the past and which were unacceptable between allies," Hollande's office said in a statement.
 
Hollande had earlier convened his top ministers and intelligence officials to discuss the revelations, with his office stating France "will not tolerate any acts that threaten its security".    

France's foreign ministry also summoned the US ambassador for a formal explanation.
 
The documents -- labelled "Top Secret" and appearing to reveal spying on Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Hollande between 2006 and 2012 -- were published by WikiLeaks along with French newspaper Liberation and the Mediapart website.
 
WikiLeaks' anti-secrecy campaigner Assange told French television late on June 24 the time had come to take legal action against Washington over its foreign surveillance activities.
 
Speaking on TF1, he urged France to go further than Germany by launching a "parliamentary inquiry" and referring "the matter to the prosecutor-general for prosecution".
 
German prosecutors had carried out a probe into alleged US tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's...