US-German talks for a "no-spying" agreement in the wake of the NSA espionage scandal are doomed to fail, German media reported Tuesday citing disgruntled Berlin delegation sources.
"We're getting nothing," one source close to the negotiations was quoted as telling the Munich daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung about Germany's efforts to formally block US snooping within its borders.
Berlin-Washington ties have been strained by the revelations of fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden of US mass surveillance of online and phone data, including Chancellor Angela Merkel's mobile phone.
News of the National Security Agency's international activities were especially damaging in Germany due to sensitivity over mass state spying on citizens by the Stasi secret police in the former communist East.
The newspaper and public broadcaster NDR jointly reported that German delegation sources, which included high-ranking government and intelligence officials, had almost lost hope for an agreement to stop spying between the allies.
The US had refused to commit to a halt on spying on German politicians, to reveal when it started listening to Merkel's phone, and to grant German officials access to a suspected listening post in its Berlin embassy, the reports said.
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