Obama reassures Merkel, not monitoring her calls

US President Barack Obama has assured German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the US "is not monitoring and will not monitor" her communications, said the White House.

According to a White House statement Wednesday, Obama and Merkel spoke over phone about the latest allegations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted communications of the German Chancellor, reports Xinhua.

"The US greatly values our close cooperation with Germany on a broad range of shared security challenges," said the White House. It is reviewing its intelligence-gathering to ensure a balance between security and privacy, it added.

The German government said in a statement Wednesday that it has received information that US intelligence is spying on the mobile communications of Merkel.

Merkel called Obama and stressed that she views such practices, if confirmed, as "completely unacceptable", said the German statement.

Merkel is the latest US ally to express concern about the NSA's intelligence surveillance programmes, following French President Francois Hollande's complaint earlier this week about spying on French citizens.