The United States is working to improve intelligence cooperation with Germany but a sweeping¹ "no-spy" agreement between the two countries is unlikely, a senior Obama administration official said on Tuesday.

一名奥巴马政府高官11月5日称，美国正努力改善与德国的情报合作，但两国间不太可能会签订彻底的“不监视”协议。

"We are not currently talking about an across-the-board 'no spy' agreement, but we do agree we need to work towards updated understandings between our two countries, and if we do that properly it can strengthen our relationship," said a senior U.S. administration official.

After revelations from former U.S. spy agency contractor² Edward Snowden about alleged³ eavesdropping⁵（偷听，窃取） on Merkel, German media speculated that the German government might seek to join an espionage⁶ alliance known as the "Five Eyes," in which the United States and a group of English-speaking allies divide the world into eavesdropping target sectors⁷ and share the results.

The "Five Eyes" partners are the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

However, a former U.S. intelligence official said that for Germany to be invited to join the group, all five of the allies would have to agree and such an agreement is highly unlikely.

A more likely result from the U.S.-German discussions is an agreement by the American side not to spy on German leaders like Merkel and also not to eavesdrop⁴ on German companies for economically competitive reasons, the former official said.

However, he said that any such promise would be largely empty, as U.S. eavesdropping rules already bar official eavesdropping for the purpose of commercial industrial espionage. U.S. officials say this policy is at odds⁸ with the practices of both friendly and adversarial（对手的） foreign countries.

The White House aims to complete a review of NSA surveillance practices by the end of the year and has acknowledged that more constraints⁹ are needed to ensure privacy rights are protected.

President Barack Obama, who has come under a stream of criticism from abroad over the NSA's activities, is considering a ban on U.S. eavesdropping on leaders of allied¹⁰ nations.