Paris---French President Francois Hollande convened his security chiefs on Wednesday after secret documents leaked by WikiLeaks indicated that the US had spied for years on him and two former leaders.
Spying between allies was "unacceptable", said French government spokesman Stephane Le Foll, shortly before the emergency meeting of the defence council.
The documents -- labelled "Top Secret" and appearing to reveal spying on Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Hollande from 2006 to 2012 -- were published online by WikiLeaks, in partnership with French newspaper Liberation and the Mediapart website.
The leak comes just weeks after President Barack Obama approved landmark legislation ending the US government's bulk telephone data dragnet, significantly reversing US policy by reining in the most controversial surveillance programme since 9/11.
The White House did not comment on past activity, but said it was not targeting Hollande's communications and will not do so in the future.
"We are not targeting and will not target the communications of President Hollande," said National Security Council (NSC) spokesman Ned Price late Tuesday, calling the US partnership with France "indispensable".
The meeting of France's top ministers and intelligence chiefs was set "to evaluate the nature of the information published by the press on Tuesday evening and to draw useful conclusions", said one of Hollande's aides.
Among the documents are five from the US National Security Agency (NSA), including the most recent dated May 22, 2012, just days after Hollande took office.
It claims the French leader "approved holding secret meetings in Paris to discuss the eurozone crisis, particularly the consequences of a Greek exit from the eurozone".
It also says Hollande believed after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that she "had given up (on Greece) and was unwilling to budge".
"This made Hollande very worried for Greece and the Greek people, who might react by voting for an extremist party," according to the document.
The same file also alleges that the French leader went behind Merkel's back to schedule meetings in Paris with members of the Social Democrats -- Germany's main opposition party at the time.
In 2013, the NSA was accused of spying on Merkel.
AFP
