'German spies made use of US surveillance data'

Germany's foreign intelligence agency (BND) has known about US surveillance and storage of German data for years and used it in cases of Germans kidnapped abroad, the mass-circulation daily Bild reported on Monday.

Questions over how much the German government and its own security agencies knew about US surveillance have touched a raw nerve in Germany, given historical memories of spying on citizens by former communist East Germany and the Nazi regime.

The matter has also become an issue in Chancellor Angela Merkel's campaign for re-election to a third term in office and, although favoured to win, she is keen to quash any impression that she knew more than she has let on.

Citing US government sources, Bild said the BND had asked the US National Security Agency (NSA) for the email and telephone records of German citizens kidnapped in Yemen or Afghanistan to help ascertain their whereabouts and contacts.

The BND was not immediately available for comment.

Last month, the US confirmed the existence of an electronic spying operation codenamed PRISM after ex-spy agency contractor Edward Snowden revealed that it mines data from European and other users of Google, Facebook, Skype and other US companies. In a separate leak, Washington was accused of eavesdropping on EU and German offices and officials.

Merkel, who has said she first learnt about the US surveillance programme from the media, pledged on Sunday to seek tougher European Union data protection rules and said she expected Washington to stick to German laws in future.

Those remarks were the closest she has come to acknowledging that Washington may have breached Germany's strict laws.