Elysee: France's Hollande strongly condemns alleged US spying

French President Francois Hollande on Monday expressed his "strong condemnation" of alleged US spying during a phone call with US President Barack Obama, branding it as "unacceptable" between friends and allies, said the French Presidency Elysee in a statement released on Tuesday. France's newspaper Le Monde reported on Monday that the US National Security Agency (NSA) had secretly monitored 70.3 million phone communications in France from Dec 10, 2012 to Jan 8 this year, Xinhua reported. Speaking to his US counterpart following the revelation, Hollande described the practice as "unacceptable" and "harmful to the private life of French citizens." He also demanded an explanation from the US and asked for all information former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden may hold. The two leaders emphasized that intelligence collection activities must be carried out under certain frameworks in order to fight terrorism efficiently. The French and US presidents "agreed to work together to determine the facts and the exact scope of surveillance activities revealed by Le Monde," said the president's office.