CEOAFRICA gathered that John Kerry, US Secretary of State has said that some US spying has gone too far.

He said that while some surveillance may have been excessive, claims that up to 70 million were being monitored were an "exaggeration".

 Mr Kerry has also defended the need for increased surveillance, saying it had thwarted terrorist attacks. His comments had come as Asian countries have protested at claims that Australia was involved in a US-led spy network.

China has also demanded an explanation of the reports, while Indonesia has summoned the Australian ambassador to Jakarta.

While speaking at a conference in London, organised by the Open Government Partnership via video link, Mr. Kerry said

"We have actually prevented airplanes from going down, buildings from being blown up, and people from being assassinated because we've been able to learn ahead of time of the plans,"

"I assure you, innocent people are not being abused in this process, but there's an effort to try to gather information. And yes, in some cases, it has reached too far inappropriately.

"And the president, our president, is determined to try to clarify and make clear for people, and is now doing a thorough review in order that nobody will have the sense of abuse... we are going to make sure that does not happen in the future." he said.

Claims about the extent of US surveillance of targets such as European leaders have strained Washington's diplomatic relations with some of its key allies.

Last week it was alleged that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone had been tapped for up to 10 years.

More recently there have been claims that the NSA hacked links connecting data centres operated by Google and Yahoo.

Mr Kerry is the most senior Obama administration official to have commented directly on an issue that has upset America's European allies.