The Italian government has summoned the American ambassador to Rome following accusations that the US National Security Agency spied on former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and some of his close associates in 2011, at the height of the eurozone crisis.

The Italian foreign ministry said in a statement that it has summoned the US ambassador, John Phillips, for “clarification” about the reports, but declined to elaborate on who Phillips met and whether the accusations of wiretapping were addressed.



A report in L’Espresso, the Italian news magazine, said that WikiLeaks documents had revealed that the NSA – the US government agency whose mass surveillance programme in the US was revealed by Edward Snowden – had spied on Berlusconi and some of his associates as the Italian economy was heading into freefall, and as the former conservative premier was facing allegations about his “Bunga Bunga” sex parties.

Citing WikiLeaks documents, the report states that Berlusconi, as well as his “trusted personal adviser” Valentino Valentini, national security adviser Bruno Archi, Marco Carnelos, a diplomatic adviser, and the permanent representative of Italy to Nato, Stefano Stefanini, were all targeted.

The US was allegedly concerned with Berlusconi’s relationship with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Earlier WikiLeaks cables dating back to 2009 portrayed Valentini as a shadowy figure who looked after Berlusconi’s interests in Russia and quoted US contacts within Berlusconi’s party and the Democratic party – which is currently in power – as believing that Berlusconi was profiting personally from energy deals between Italy and Russia



The report suggested that the new revelations “reopen the case” about why Berlusconi ultimately stepped down, but it did not make any direct allegations in connection to the WikiLeaks documents. Berlusconi’s resignation led to the ascent of Mario Monti’s government, who was followed by prime minister Enrico Letta, and, finally, the current premier, Matteo Renzi.



The report said that the NSA also intercepted a phone conversation between Berlusconi and the Israeli leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, in March 2010, in a period of crisis between Israel and the US, after Netanyahu announced Israel planned to build 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem. In the conversation, Netanyahu allegedly said tensions between Israel and the US could only be heightened by the absence of direct contacts with Barack Obama, the US president. In response, Berlusconi promised to help mend ties with Washington.



The US embassy did not respond to a request for comment. The news comes one day after a report in the Wall Street Journal revealed that Italy has agreed to allow the US to use the American and Nato naval air base in Sicily to launch armed drones in defensive attacks against Isis in northern Africa. The breakthrough came after a year of negotiations between the countries, with Italy reportedly blocking a request by the US to use the Sicilian base to launch potential offensive attacks.



The decision to summon the ambassador was not entirely unprecedented. When the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, learned that the NSA had spied on her, she rang up Obama directly and the issue strained the relationship between Germany and the US.

Ambassador Phillips was confirmed by the Senate in August 2013. On the US embassy website, it says the former Washington attorney played a “significant role” in the creation of a whistleblower reward programme designed to encourage private citizens to expose and detect defence contractor fraud. He is married to Linda Douglass, who served as communications director for the White House effort to pass healthcare reform.