UK's Foreign Secretary William Hague has insisted that British spies have not used US surveillance programmes to get around laws restricting their ability to eavesdrop on the public.
Hague, who cancelled a trip to Washington to address parliament on the issue, said Britain's electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ operated within a strict legal framework.
"It has been suggested that GCHQ uses our partnership with the United States to get around UK law, obtaining information that they cannot legally obtain in the United Kingdom," Hague said.
Al Jazeera's Laurence Lee reports from London.