US President Barack Obama was clear: He has no intention of stopping the daily collection of US citizens' phone records and blamed government leaks for creating distrust of his domestic spying program.

In a news conference on Friday, the president acknowledged the domestic spying has troubled US people and hurt the country's image abroad and offered "appropriate reforms". But he called it a critical counterterrorism tool.

Obama endorsed modest oversight changes to the surveillance programs on Friday.

His most significant proposal would create an independent attorney to argue against the government during secret hearings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which reviews requests for surveillance inside the US. As it stands now, prosecutors alone can go to the court and make their case unopposed.

Obama also is creating an outside advisory panel to review US surveillance powers. He did not say who would be on that panel and he met secretly this week with technology business leaders. Some cooperated with the government surveillance and were unhappy to see their companies named in leaked government documents.

Obama said the NSA would hire a privacy officer, and his intelligence agencies will build a website explaining their mission.

AP

(China Daily 08/12/2013 page11)