German Chancellor Angela Merkel: 'Trust has to be reestablished' after US spying

(UPI) -- After learning that the United States National Security Agency may have eavesdropped on her cellphone, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the U.S. and Europe must work to reestablish trust.

Merkel addressed the issue of U.S. spying after she arrived at a summit of European Union leaders in Brussels, Belgium. "We need trust, and now the trust has to be reestablished," she said.

President Barack Obama and Merkel discussed the issue on Wednesday after the German government revealed that it believed the U.S. may have been monitoring her cellphone. According to White House spokesman Jay Carney, Obama told Merkel that the U.S. "is not monitoring and will not monitor" her communications.

John B. Emerson, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, also met with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Thursday.

Earlier in the week, it was reported that the NSA intercepted more than 70 million phone calls in France over a 30-day period.

Obama and French President Francois Hollande spoke about those claims as well.

"The President and President Hollande discussed recent disclosures in the press -- some of which have distorted our activities and some of which raise legitimate questions for our friends and allies about how these capabilities are employed," a White House statement said.

"The President made clear that the United States has begun to review the way that we gather intelligence, so that we properly balance the legitimate security concerns of our citizens and allies with the privacy concerns that all people share."