President Obama told Germany's ZDF TV that he did not want to "harm" his relationship with Mrs Merkel
President
Barack Obama has said he will not let controversial surveillance by US
intelligence services undermine Washington's ties with Germany.
Speaking to Germany's ZDF TV, he indicated that US bugging of
Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone had been a mistake and would
not happen again.
After the row broke out last year, Mrs Merkel accused the US of an unacceptable breach of trust.
On Friday, Mr Obama ordered curbs on how intelligence was being collected.
Personal pledge
On Saturday, the US president told ZDF: "I don't need and
don't want to harm that (US-German) relationship by a surveillance
mechanism that somehow would impede the kind of communication and trust
that we have."
"As long as I'm president of the United States, the chancellor of Germany will not have to worry about this."
But he added the US intelligence services, like all others,
would continue to be interested in what world governments' intentions
were.
"There is no point in having an intelligence service if you
are restricted to the things that you can read in the New York Times or
Der Spiegel, " he said.
"The truth of the matter is that by definition the job of
intelligence is to find out: Well, what are folks thinking? What are
they doing?"
It is clear that President Obama thinks there is some
repairing of the relationship with Germany to be done, the BBC's Stephen
Evans in Berlin reports.
Mr Obama was embarrassed by leaks that the US had spied on Chancellor Merkel
Mr Obama said he and Chancellor Merkel might not always be of
the same opinion but that was not a "reason to wiretap", our
correspondent adds.
The interview was broadcast a day after the president ordered
restrictions on the use of bulk data collected by US intelligence
agencies, saying civil liberties must be respected.
Details of the times, numbers and durations of phone calls -
known as metadata - are currently collected and held by the National
Security Agency (NSA). But Mr Obama said he was ending that system "as
it currently exists".
He asked the attorney general and the intelligence community
to draw up plans for metadata to be held by a third party, with the NSA
requiring legal permission to access them.
Mr Obama also stressed that such data had prevented terror
attacks at home and abroad, but that in tackling threats the government
risked over-reaching itself.
He also pledged that the NSA would not be spying on the leaders of close allies.
Hero or traitor?
Edward Snowden is now living in exile in Russia
Leaked documents last year revealed that the US had spied on
friendly foreign leaders, including on the personal mobile phone of
German Merkel.
A spokesman for Mrs Merkel said on Friday many Germans were
"rightfully concerned" by spying reports and that the rights of foreign
citizens must be respected.
He said Berlin would continue to hold confidential talks with
the US on "a new clear basis for co-operation amongst intelligence
agencies".
The leaked documents showed that the US had been collecting
and storing almost 200 million text messages every day across the globe,
according to the Guardian newspaper and Channel 4 News.
Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked the
information, is wanted in the US for espionage and is now living in
exile in Russia.
Civil liberties groups see him as a hero for exposing what
they see as official intrusions into private lives, but many Americans
believe he has endangered American lives.