Barack Obama raises possibility of new legislation to curb NSA powers

President Barack Obama has raised for the first time the prospect of new legislation to limit the powers of the National Security Agency.

Answering a question at a joint press conference with Swedish prime minister Frederik Reinfeldt, President Obama said there were "legitimate questions" about the NSA. He said existing laws may not be sufficient to deal with advances in technology that have allowed the NSA to gather much more data than before. Until now, President Obama has only proposed limited changes and is awaiting recommendations from a review body he set up. The President's language was more sympathetic towards the privacy camp than it has been. Just because the US intelligence agencies could do something did not meant it should, President Obama said.