According to the information, reportedly provided to the publication by the former NSA contractor, in December 2012, the NSA collected data on roughly 60 million phone calls.

The revelation is part of the unraveling scandal over America’s vast spying program which was given a new twist last week when an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel revealed that Washington was directly snooping on least 35 world leaders.

Spain Foreign Ministry said monitoring of Spanish telephone and computer communications by the US intelligence services is “unacceptable” if proven to be true.

The Spanish Foreign Ministry said on Monday that it delivered the message to American Ambassador James Costos over the case to be clarified immediately.

“Spain has relayed to the United States the importance of preserving a climate of trust ... and its interest in understanding the full reach of practices that, if true, would be considered inappropriate and unacceptable between allies,” said the ministry.

This is the second time in less than a week that the American ambassador has been summoned by the Spanish government to respond to reports of illegal US surveillance on the European country.

Madrid has also asked Washington to provide details of reported eavesdropping on its citizens.

Moreover, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel has reportedly been on the spy-list since 2002.

German media have revealed that Obama was aware of the particular operation since at least 2010 and even ordered the NSA to prepare a comprehensive dossier on Merkel.

NJF/NJF