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 The presidents' conversation, announced by Hollande's office, came
after transparency lobby group WikiLeaks revealed on Tuesday that
U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on the last three
French presidents.
The latest revelations of espionage among Western allies came after
it emerged that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had spied on
Germany and that Germany's own BND intelligence agency had
cooperated with the NSA to spy on officials and companies elsewhere
in Europe.
"President Obama reiterated unequivocally his firm commitment ... to
end the practices that may have happened in the past and that are
considered unacceptable among allies," the French president's office
said.
Hollande had earlier held an emergency meeting of his ministers and
army commanders and the U.S. ambassador was summoned to the foreign
ministry.
"France will not tolerate actions that threaten its security and the
protection of its interests," an earlier statement from the
president's office said, adding it was not the first time
allegations of U.S. spying on French interests had surfaced.
A senior French intelligence official will travel to the United
States to discuss the matter and strengthen cooperation between the
two countries, Hollande's office said.
"We have to verify that this spying has finished," Stephane Le Foll,
government spokesman, told reporters, adding that ministers had been
told to be careful when speaking on their mobile phones.
While Paris and Washington have good ties in general, U.N. Security
Council veto-holder France fiercely maintains its independence on
foreign policy and over the last two years there have been moments
of friction and irritation on both sides.
Hollande was disappointed by Obama's last-minute decision not to
strike Syrian government positions in 2013. U.S. officials have
frequently, in private, criticized France's tough stance in talks
over Iran's nuclear program.
MORE DOCUMENTS TO COME
The revelations were first reported by French daily Liberation and
on news website Mediapart, which said the NSA spied on presidents
Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande during the
period of at least 2006 until May 2012.
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According to the documents, Sarkozy considered restarting
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks without U.S. involvement and
Hollande feared a Greek euro zone exit back in 2012.
Wikileaks said it would soon publish more details on the nature of
U.S. spying on France.
Le Foll said Paris had not decided whether to launch legal
proceedings as Germany had done but, amid calls from some quarters
for retaliation, played down diplomatic consequences.
"In the face of threats that we face and given the historic ties
linking us, we have to keep a perspective," he said. "We're not
going to break diplomatic ties."
Germany's top public prosecutor closed a year-long probe earlier
this month into the suspected tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel's
cell phone by U.S. spies.
Claude Gueant, Sarkozy's former chief of staff and one of the
reported targets of the NSA, told RTL radio: "I feel like trust has
been broken."
The documents, which included the cell phone of one of the
presidents, included summaries of conversations between French
officials on the global financial crisis, the future of the European
Union, ties between Hollande's administration and Merkel's
government.
(Additional reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Ralph Boulton)
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