Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has accused France of eavesdropping on her in the 1990s.

"I will very much remember when I was at the United Nations, the French ambassador coming up to me saying, 'Why did you say that to somebody, about why do you want women in the government?'"

"And I said, 'Excuse me?' They had an intercept," she said at the Center for American Progress in Washington.

Ms Albright's remarks came as a growing number of world leaders accuse the US of spying on them. Revelations in the global news media are based on a cache of documents leaked by Edward Snowden, a former US intelligence contractor.

"This is not a surprise to people," she said. "Countries spy on each other."

Ms Albright was secretary of state 1997-2001. Prior to that, she was US ambassador to the UN.