German weekly Der Spiegel revealed Wednesday that some 80 "Special Collection Service" (SCS) agents worldwide are directed by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to eavesdrop on world leaders and local governments.

Aside from 19 European locations, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Taipei and several other Asian cities are also targets of NSA surveillance.

Japan and South Korea are not included on the exposed SCS agents list, possibly because they are U.S. allies.

Earlier this week, a "top secret" classified NSA document showed that the U.S. was responsible for the extensive surveillance of the communications of as many as 35 world leaders -and probably millions of foreign nationals.

The leaders monitored through NSA phone tapping included German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was reported to have been spied on by the U.S. security agency since 2002.

The NSA was also accused of accessing tens of thousands of French phone records as well as tracking 60.5 million telephone calls across Spain in a single month.

Amid rising fury over the U.S. spying scandal, Washington insisted President Barack Obama had only been informed of the Merkel phone tap in 2010, after which he allowed for it to continue.

NSA Director General Keith Alexander defended the agency's spying operations focusing on European allies in a hearing before the Congress on Tuesday, saying the act "is bringing back more U.S. soldiers, airmen and Marines alive from danger."

Speaking at the same hearing, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper argued that foreign allies also spy on U.S. officials and intelligence agencies.

British newspaper The Guardian reported on Monday that Obama had already appointed a top-level group of experts to conduct an external review of the U.S. surveillance capabilities and assess damages to both the public trust and U.S. foreign relations resulting from the recent surveillance disclosures.

The review, part of which will be declassified and released to the public, is expected to be completed by mid-December.

Nonetheless, according to a senior administration official, a secret "interim report" will be submitted to the U.S. president mid-November.

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