Documents reveal NSA also snooped on German ex- chancellor Gerhard Schroder's phone

The latest claim to arrive out of the trove of secret documents revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden points that the US spy agency, NSA, snooped on not just Germany's current chancellor Angela Merkel, but also on her predecessor.

The secret documents have claimed that ex-chancellor Gerhard Schroder's was also intercepted after opposition to military action in Iraq in 2002.

German media has claimed that the US intelligence agencies began monitoring the mobile phone of the former chancellor more than 10 years ago when Schroder was leader, the Guardian reports.

According to the report, it was revealed in October that Merkel's phone had been bugged by the intelligence services, triggering serious diplomatic stand offs between the two nations and pushing US President Barack Obama to issue assurances that no monitoring of her communications shall be done.

Meanwhile, Schroder said that he would never have imagined that he was being bugged by American services then, but now he was no longer surprised.

Schroder's former spokesman Bela Anda also expressed his surprise, saying that the former chancellor 'didn't have his own phone, but kept on changing it'.

Spokeswoman for the Obama administration's national security council, Caitlin Hayden declined to comment on the specific allegations but pointed out that Obama has announced a series of reforms to surveillance activities involving foreign targets, the report added.