Brazil demands clarifications on NSA surveillance

US Secretary of State John Kerry reacts during a news conference with Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota at the Itamaraty Palace in Brasilia August 13, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

BRASILIA, Brazil - Brazil demanded answers Tuesday from the US about National Security Agency spying in the country and warned that trust between the two nations would be damaged if US explanations about the program were not satisfactory.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who was visiting Brasilia, sought to allay Brazil's concerns about the program, saying the US would work to provide answers to Brazil and other Latin American nations rankled by the NSA surveillance revealed by systems analyst Edward Snowden.

"We're now facing a new type of challenge in our bilateral relationship," Brazil Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said at a news conference. "The challenge is related to news about the interception of Brazilian electronic and telephone communications. And if those challenges are not resolved in a satisfactory way, we run the risk of casting a shadow of distrust over our work."

He said Brazil was seeking explanations through political, diplomatic and technical channels, but that those clarifications were not an "end to themselves".

"We need to stop practices that violate sovereignty," he said.

The O Globo newspaper reported last month that information released by Snowden showed Brazil is the top target in Latin America for the NSA's massive intelligence-gathering effort, aimed at monitoring communications around the world.

Public opposition to the spying was on display outside the Foreign Ministry building on Tuesday as a few dozen protesters yelled "go away, spies" to some members of Kerry's traveling party as they left the building.

Kerry defended the NSA program, saying it had been approved by all three branches of the US government.

"We're not surprised and we're not upset that Brazil would ask questions. Absolutely understandable," Kerry said.

"Brazil is owed answers with respect to those questions and they will get them. And we will work together very positively to make certain that this question - these issues - do not get in the way of all the other things that we talked about," Kerry said.

He said he could not discuss operational issues, but said the US is talking to the Brazilians about the program.

"We will guarantee that Brazil and other countries will understand exactly what we are doing - why and how - and we will work together to make sure that whatever is done is done in a way that respects our friends and our partners. And that is what we are going to achieve."

Revelations about NSA snooping in Brazil came at a time when the US has been trying to expand the relationship with Brazil, an economic powerhouse in Latin America.