The alleged spy is believed to be an employee of the German foreign intelligence service BND

(VOVworld)- An employee of Germany's intelligence service has been arrested on suspicion of spying for the US. The man is said to have been trying to gather details about a German parliamentary committee that is investigating claims of US espionage. German authorities have asked the US ambassador for "swift clarification". The US National Security Agency (NSA) was last year accused of bugging the phone of Chancellor Angela Merkel as part of a huge surveillance program. The scale of the agency's global spy programme was revealed in documents leaked last year by a former intelligence contractor, Edward Snowden. The revelations about the NSA put a strain on ties between Germany and the US and raised feeling in Germany against American surveillance. German media say the man arrested this week is a 31-year-old employee of the federal service, the BND or Bundesnachrichtendienst. The German federal prosecutor's office confirmed the man's arrest, but gave no other details.