WASHINGTON: Sen. Diane Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Monday called for a ''total review of all intelligence programs'' following allegations that the National Security Agency eavesdropped on the German chancellor — the latest revelation in a spying scandal that has strained longstanding alliances.

The NSA's program of spying on the foreign leaders was already damaging relations with some of the closest US allies. German officials said Monday that the US could lose access to an important law enforcement tool used to track terrorist money flows.

As possible leverage, German authorities cited last week's non-binding resolution by the European Parliament to suspend a post-9/11 agreement allowing the Americans access to bank transfer data to track the flow of terrorist money. A top German official said Monday she believed the Americans were using the information to gather economic intelligence apart from terrorism and that the agreement known as the SWIFT agreement should be suspended.

Feinstein says while the intelligence community has kept her apprised of other issues, like the court orders on telephone record collection, intelligence officials failed to brief her on how they followed foreign leaders.
Her statement follows reports based on new leaks from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden indicating that the NSA listened to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and 34 other foreign leaders.

''With respect to NSA collection of intelligence on leaders of US allies — including France, Spain, Mexico and Germany — let me state unequivocally: I am totally opposed,'' Feinstein said in her statement Monday. She said the US should not be ''collecting phone calls or emails of friendly presidents and prime ministers'' unless in an emergency with approval of the president. National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden refused to comment on ''assertions made in the senator's statement'' about US foreign intelligence activities. Hayden said that the administration is currently reviewing its intelligence priorities, with two separate review bodies looking at how US spying works.

European Union officials who are in Washington to meet with lawmakers ahead of White House talks said US surveillance of their people could affect negotiations over a US-Europe trade agreement. They said European privacy must be better protected.

Many officials in Germany and other European governments have made clear, however, that they don't favor suspending the US-EU trade talks which began last summer because both sides stand to gain so much through the proposed deal, especially against competition from China and other emerging markets.

As tensions with European allies escalate, the top US intelligence official declassified dozens of pages of top secret documents in an apparent bid to show the NSA was acting legally when it gathered millions of Americans' phone records.