Germany checking for more CIA moles in its intelligence agency

Germany's intelligence agency has reacted to the continuing row over US spying by commissioning an investigation to unmask further moles in its own ranks.

Gerhard Schindler, president of the agency known as BND, told the government that he had ordered an analysis of his agency's communications for irregularities, according to Der Spiegel.

Similar searches had previously concentrated on identifying Russian and Chinese spies, the magazine said.

The discovery in recent weeks of two suspected US spies on the German government's payroll triggered an official request on Thursday for the CIA's station chief to leave the country.

The move met with cross-party approval in Germany last week. The foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, described the request, which does not amount to a formal expulsion, as a necessary response to the US "breach of trust".

Steinmeier confirmed he would meet the US secretary of state, John Kerry, during the Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna this week. He said he hoped the meeting would lead to a new start for the US and Germany. "It would be an illusion to assume conflicts can be defused and political solutions can be worked out without closely collaborating with the US," he said.