Washington avoids reaction on US intelligence chief's expulsion

Washington, July 11 (IANS) The Obama administration declined Thursday to discuss its possible response to Germany's expulsion of the representative of US intelligence agencies in Berlin in a growing spy row.

State Department spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, as she did before, still sounded a note of caution even as Berlin Thursday asked the US intelligence chief at the American embassy to leave following the revelations of two spying cases within days, Xinhua reported.

Asked whether Washington was expelling anyone from the German embassy in retaliation, Psaki replied "I don't have anything more to add on this particular topic".

She refused to make any "specific" comment on the alleged US espionage involving two German nationals working separately with Germany's foreign intelligence service known as BND and its Defence Ministry.

The latest revelations have sparked outrage in Germany, as the country is still reeling from the US National Security Agency's spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone, a move denounced by the chancellor as a "breach of trust".

Psaki said she expected Secretary of State John Kerry to call his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier "in the coming days".