President Barack Obama has urged a series of reforms to US surveillance programmes in order to guarantee greater openness and oversight.
At a White House news conference, Mr Obama proposed amending provisions in the Patriot Act that govern the collection of telephone data.
He also proposed introducing an "adversary" to hold accountable the secretive court behind the programmes.
He has been defending the programmes since they were leaked in June.
At Friday's news conference, Mr Obama said: "It's not enough for me as president to have confidence in these programmes; the American people need to have confidence as well."
