REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BERLIN - Germany's top public prosecutor had launched an investigation into the bugging of Angela Merkel's mobile phone by US intelligence in the light of revelations by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, authorities said on Wednesday.

Attorney General Harald Range's office said Germany's top federal prosecutor had enough data to push ahead with an official investigation.

"Extensive preliminary investigations produced sufficient factual evidence that unknown US intelligence officers tapped a mobile phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel," said a statement from Range's office.

Although there is not yet a strong enough case to start legal proceedings, Range's office said he is still looking into wider allegations that both US and British intelligence carried out "massive surveillance of the German population's telecommunications data".

Range, who had told a German parliamentary committee earlier on Wednesday about his plans to open legal proceedings over the espionage, was due to hold a news conference at 5 pm (1500 GMT) at his office in the city of Karlsruhe. Justice Minister Heiko Maas told German radio earlier in the day that investigators would "have to take action" if it came to light that German law had been broken regarding Merkel's mobile phone or other surveillance revealed by Snowden.

The two countries have been at odds over the US National Security Agency's (NSA) spying habits since Snowden's revelations last year showed the United States had listened in on many of its allies, including Merkel, severely testing ties between Berlin and Washington.

Revelations that the United States and Britain have carried out large-scale electronic espionage in Germany - including from the roofs of their embassies in Berlin, near Merkel's office and the Reichstag - have provoked widespread indignation in Germany.

In a country sensitive about official surveillance after the excesses of the Nazi-era Gestapo secret police and of the Stasi in former communist East Germany, politicians have pushed in vain for a "no-spy" agreement with Washington. The United States said it did not have such agreements with any country, friend or foe.

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