Now, Brazilian FM concerned with US 'snooping' on country

Brazilian foreign minister has expressed concern in light of revelations about US led NSA collecting 'metadata' about its citizens for its alleged snooping programme.

According to Politico, Antonio Patriota expressed his deep concern at reports about the electronic and telephone communications of Brazilian citizens being snooped on by the US.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that a number of telephone and email messages were logged by the NSA in January which was not far behind the 2.3 billion reportedly collected in the US.

Patriota said that the Brazilian government has asked the US authorities for clarifications and will also ask U.N. for measures 'to impede abuses and protect the privacy' of Internet users, laying down rules for governments 'to guarantee cybernetic security that protects the rights of citizens and preserves the sovereignty of all countries.'

Patriota's outrage and concern add to the list of other nations including Germany and Hong Kong which extend the diplomatic turbulence US is facing since Snowden's revelations.

According to the report, Brazil has extensive digitalized public and private networks operated by large telecommunications and Internet companies and thus appears to stand out on maps of NSA as a priority target for telephony and data traffic, alongside nations such as China, Russia and Pakistan.

U.S. journalist Glenn Greenwald said that the NSA has, for years, systematically tapped into the Brazilian telecommunication network and indiscriminately intercepted, collected and stored the email and telephone records of millions of Brazilians.

Brazilian foreign ministry earlier said that it did 'not plan to respond' to Snowden's request for asylum in the country.