BRITISH and US spy agencies targeted the office of an Israeli prime minister, the heads of international aid organisations and the European Union's competition commissioner, to secret documents show.
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The targets were among more than 1000 listed in documents leaked to journalists by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.
Though the NSA's past targeting of foreign heads of state has been reported, the documents show a broad spectrum of interests by the NSA and its British sister agency, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), in more than 60 countries, according to reports in The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel published online on Friday.
The target lists appear in a set of GCHQ reports and date from 2008 to 2011, The New York Times says. They sometimes identify which agency requested the monitoring, but more often do not.
The reports reflected some obvious targets, such as the Taliban and ''various entities in Beijing'', as well as some in France and Germany, allied countries in which tension is already high over NSA spying.
The documents show that the agencies intercepted emails of several Israeli officials, including one target identified as ''Israeli prime minister'', The Times reported. At the time, January 2009, the prime minister was Ehud Olmert. Two Israeli embassies were also listed.
Israel is considered the United States' closest ally in the Middle East but it is no secret that both countries spy on each other. But the disclosure could add further tensions to a relationship strained by differences in policy on Iran.
Also spied on was a European Commission official who oversees competition policy and whose office has investigated Google. The monitoring took place in 2008 and 2009, the reports said. Aid organisations also were targeted, the documents said. They included the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Medecins du Monde, which provides medical help in wars.
The disclosures come on the heels of a 300-page report by a surveillance review panel appointed by US President Barack Obama, which recommended that decisions on whether to spy on foreign leaders take into account the potential for diplomatic and economic fallout if the operations are revealed, and that White House approval be required to spy on sensitive targets.
Revelations this year that the NSA had targeted German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone caused a stir.
The NSA said some economic espionage was necessary ''to understand economic systems and policies, and monitor anomalous economic activities''. Washington Post
