In an interview to be published in full on Thursday by Die Zeit newspaper, Merkel said it has been the responsibility of secret services to cooperate with others for German security, calling for the necessary discussions to take place in a spirit that does not neglect that the United States "has for decades been and still is our most loyal ally.""For decades, intelligence services have been working together under certain conditions that are tightly regulated in our country, and this serves our security," Merkel said.

　　Merkel said she was only made aware of the U.S. spying programs through media reports, as the opposition has pressed her on how much she knew about U.S. surveillance activities after whistleblower Edward Snowden told German magazine Der Spiegel in a recent interview that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) worked closely with the German intelligence service.

　　Stressing a balance between ensuring public security and protecting citizens' privacy, Merkel rejected the comparisons between the U.S. surveillance activities and the former East German Stasi secret police.

　　Merkel said the two are completely different things and such comparisons only "lead to a trivialization of what the Stasi did to people" in East Germany.

　　She said intelligence work in democratic states has always been and will in future be essential for the security of citizens, adding that "a country without intelligence work would be too vulnerable."A recent report by Der Spiegel, citing classified documents disclosed by fugitive Snowden, said Washington was monitoring phone calls and Internet data connections in Germany as well as spying on the headquarters of the European Union and its offices in Washington and the United Nations in New York.

　　The report sparked widespread outcry in privacy-sensitive Germany. The German government has said that Berlin felt surprised and "alienated" by media reports of cold-war-style U.S. spying on European nations.

　　U.S. President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed last Wednesday to hold a high-level bilateral meeting over U.S. surveillance programs.