Sweden seeks telecoms monitoring

Conversations within Sweden would remain untouched

Sweden's government has presented a bill to give its defence intelligence agency powers to monitor any e-mail or phone call into or out of the country.

The National Defence Radio Establishment currently listens in on military communications and needs a court order for any other surveillance.

The government says conversations within Sweden would remain untouched.

But critics say the proposals put before parliament would be among the most intrusive in the world.

The civil liberties group The New Welfare Foundation said the changes sought by the government were too far-reaching.

"They're going from fishing with a hook to fishing with a net," said foundation spokesman Par Strom.

"We are crossing a very fundamental border."

The National Defence Radio Establishment cracked Nazi codes during World War II and monitored Soviet transmissions during the Cold War.