The director of national intelligence said the report in Le Monde newspaper contained "misleading information".

 

In a separate story, the newspaper said the US bugged¹ French diplomats² and used the information to sway a key UN vote.

 

Both reports were based on leaks from fugitive³ ex-US intelligence worker Edward Snowden.

 

"Recent articles published in the French newspaper Le Monde contain inaccurate⁴ and misleading information regarding US foreign intelligence activities," Mr Clapper said in a statement released on Tuesday.

 

"The allegation that the National Security Agency collected more than 70 million 'recordings⁵ of French citizens' telephone data' is false."

 

Mr Clapper said he would not discuss details of surveillance activities, but acknowledged "the United States gathers intelligence of the type gathered by all nations".

 

 

His statement did not mention the second set of allegations about the National Security Agency (NSA) programmes that allegedly monitored French diplomats in Washington and at the UN.

 

The paper laid out how US spies used computer bugs⁷ and phone-tapping techniques to monitor French diplomats at the UN and in Washington.

 

Those claims were first carried in the German magazine Der Spiegel and the Washington Post in early September.

 

But Le Monde's story gives details of how the intelligence gathered from French diplomats was used.

 

It quotes a document issued by a directorate of the NSA as stating that the data helped the US sway a Security Council vote on a resolution imposing⁸ new sanctions on Iran on 9 June 2010.

 

The US had apparently⁹ feared losing the vote, and needed French support.

 

The document quotes America's former UN envoy¹⁰ Susan Rice as saying the NSA's information helped the US "keep one step ahead in the negotiations¹¹".

 

On Monday, Le Monde alleged⁶ that the NSA spied on 70.3 million phone calls in France between 10 December 2012 and 8 January 2013.

 

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he had asked for a full explanation of those claims from US Secretary of State John Kerry.

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