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The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Slovenia demanded explanations from Mussomeli on media reports suggesting that the NSA was spying on European missions in Washington, EU institutions and even on individual countries.

The ministry did not respond to STA's question on whether Slovenia was among the countries targeted by the NSA's alleged spying operations.

Slovenia expressed concern over the allegations and requested a response from the US on the accuracy of the media reports on spying operations against friends and allies in the meeting between the Foreign Ministry's Director for Bilateral Affairs Marjan Cencen and Mussomeli.

The US Embassy in Ljubljana confirmed on Tuesday the meeting at the Slovenian Foreign Ministry, labelling it "a useful exchange of views between allies and friends".

The embassy added in a brief statement that it "appreciated and respected the views of the [Slovenian government] on this and all other issues of mutual interest", while not providing further details of the talks at what it labelled "a private meeting".

The meeting comes a day after Germany summoned the US ambassador in Berlin in the wake of new allegations from Edward Snowden, the ex-CIA analyst who has leaked information about secret US surveillance programmes.

German weekly Der Spiegel cited documents from Snowden in reporting on Saturday of a US spying operation targeting EU institutions, including the EU Mission in Washington and the EU Mission to the UN in New York.

This was followed up on Monday by The Guardian, which published a secret document from 2010 alleging that the NSA targetted 38 foreign missions in the US using sophisticated bugging and electronic surveillance technology.

The fresh allegations surfaced three weeks after Snowden leaked documents of a secret NSA electronic surveillance programme with which the US was monitoring internet communication around the world.