BERLIN/BRUSSELS, Oct 24: Germany’s Foreign Ministry summoned the US ambassador on Thursday following allegations that American intelligence may have targeted Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cellphone.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, made clear they weren’t satisfied with a US statement that it isn’t monitoring her communications now. And Germany’s defence minister added that Europe can’t simply return to business as usual in trans-Atlantic ties following a string of reports that the US was spying on its allies.

Merkel’s government says she complained to President Barack Obama on Wednesday after receiving information her cellphone may have been monitored. The White House said the US isn’t monitoring and won’t monitor Merkel’s communications – but didn’t address what might have happened in the past.

The Foreign Ministry said US Ambassador John B. Emerson is expected to meet on Thursday afternoon with Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, who will “spell out the position of the German government.’’

The US Embassy said it had no comment.

Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere told ARD television the alleged surveillance would be “really bad” if confirmed. “The Americans are and remain our best friends, but this is absolutely not right,” he said.

’’I have reckoned for years with my cellphone being monitored, but I wasn’t reckoning with the Americans,” said de Maiziere, who was previously Merkel’s chief of staff and Germany’s interior minister.

’’We can’t simply return to business as usual,” de Maiziere said when asked about possible effects on US-German and US-European relations. This week, France demanded an explanation of a report the US swept up millions of French phone records, and also summoned the American ambassador.

Leaders of the European Union’s 28 countries meet in Brussels on Thursday for a long-planned summit.

Germany, which has Europe’s biggest economy, has been one of Washington’s closest allies in Europe. The United States was West Germany’s protector during the Cold War and the country is still home to thousands of US troops.

A German parliamentary committee that oversees the country’s intelligence service held a meeting to discuss the matter.

Its head, Thomas Oppermann, said he was informed that news magazine Der Spiegel had confronted the chancellery with documents on the matter, that the suspicion of surveillance was reviewed and found to be “plausible.” Der Spiegel has published material from NSA leaker Edward Snowden, but didn’t detail its sources on the cellphone story.

Recalling previous reports to the panel that US authorities have said they didn’t violate German interests, Oppermann said ahead of the meeting that “we were apparently deceived by the American side.’’

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Wednesday that Obama assured Merkel that “the United States is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of the chancellor.’’

The German government didn’t say what Merkel thought of Obama’s response, but a prominent lawmaker with her party who heads Parliament’s domestic affairs committee criticised Carney’s statement.

’’I think we are all outraged, across party lines,” Wolfgang Bosbach told Deutschlandfunk radio. “And that also goes for the response that the chancellor’s cellphone is not being monitored – because this sentence says nothing about whether the chancellor was monitored in the past.’’This cannot be justified from any point of view by the fight against international terrorism or by averting danger,” he said. The federal prosecutors’ office, which is responsible for cases involving national security, said it had launched an “observation” of the matter –a procedure that falls well short of a formal investigation and is aimed at determining whether there are grounds for one. It said it would seek information from German authorities.

Merkel had previously raised concerns over allegations of mass electronic eavesdropping when Obama visited Germany in June, demanded answers from the US government and backed calls for greater European data protection. Her government is striking a markedly sharper tone now, and signaling frustration over the answers provided so far by the US government.

Europe’s leaders united on Thursday behind Germany and France as an escalating row over claims of US snooping on its traditional allies overshadowed a key summit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose mobile phone was reportedly the latest target of covert surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA), set the tone. —Agencies