17:12
Tieng Anh Vui
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says the claims are "totally unacceptable"
The US has sought to ease French concerns over claims the US National Security Agency secretly recorded millions of phone calls in France.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said France was "one of our oldest allies" but also said the US acted to protect the security of American citizens.
French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said he was "deeply shocked" by the claims published in Le Monde newspaper.
They suggest the NSA tracked officials, businesses and terror suspects.
The claims are based on leaks from US ex-intelligence analyst Edward Snowden.
'Information gathering'
Mr Kerry, who was in Paris to meet Arab League officials, said that the US would continue "bilateral consultations" to address the issue.
Analysis
This is not the first time the US has been accused of spying on the French. Last year the Elysee Palace confirmed it had discovered a "powerful worm" in the computers of the Elysee network that had the ability to collect files on a machine, take screenshots, even activate the microphone on a computer to record conversations.
The US embassy in Paris categorically denied the US had been involved in any cyber attack on the French government. Nonetheless the finger was pointed by the French media.
On Monday morning, Laurent Fabius summoned the US ambassador to an urgent meeting to request an explanation of these latest allegations from Le Monde. But then, the French already know the power of these surveillance programmes - because according to Le Monde they've been running a similar surveillance programme themselves; though perhaps only focused on its own nationals.
"Protecting the security of our citizens in today's world is a very complicated, very challenging task... because there are lots of people out there seeking to do harm to other people," Mr Kerry said.
"Our goal is always to try to find the right balance between protecting the privacy and security of our citizens," he said.
In an earlier statement, the White House said "all nations" conducted spying operations.
"As a matter of policy we have made clear that the United States gathers foreign intelligence of the type gathered by all nations," said National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden.
State department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the US was conducting a review of its intelligence gathering to strike a "balance between the legitimate security concerns that our citizens have and the privacy concerns that we and our allies have as well about some of these alleged intelligence activities".
Ms Harf said the US hoped the incident would not damage the close working relationship with France.
Envoy summoned
Le Monde says the NSA spied on 70.3 million phone calls in France in just 30 days between 10 December last year and 8 January 2013.
The intercepts were apparently triggered by certain key words.
The agency also apparently captured millions of text messages.
US allies on spying claims
- US agencies accused of spying on leaders of Brazil and Mexico; Brazil's Dilma Rousseff cancels state visit, Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto says US has promised an inquiry
- US allegedly runs bugging operations on EU mission in Washington and other European embassies; France objects, Germany cancels surveillance agreement with US and UK
- Le Monde claims NSA snooped on millions of phone calls in France; US ambassador in Paris summoned to explain
It was unclear whether the content of the calls and messages was stored, or just the metadata - the details of who was speaking to whom.
And the paper did not say whether the operation, codenamed US-985D, was still in progress.
France's foreign ministry summoned US ambassador Charles Rivkin over the allegations.
The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says the outrage is largely for public consumption, because the French government has been accused of running its own snooping operation similar to the US.
Le Monde reported in July that the French government was storing vast amounts of personal data of its citizens on a supercomputer at the headquarters of the DGSE intelligence service.
The latest revelations follow claims in the German media that US agents hacked into the email account of former Mexican President Felipe Calderon.
Mr Snowden, a former NSA worker, went public with revelations about US spying operations in June.
The information he leaked led to claims of systematic spying by the NSA and CIA on a global scale.
Targets included rivals like China and Russia, as well as allies like the EU and Brazil.
The NSA was also forced to admit it had captured email and phone data from millions of Americans.
Mr Snowden is currently in Russia, where he was granted a year-long visa after making an asylum application.
The US wants him extradited to face trial on criminal charges.
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