Norway’s military intelligence chief has admitted his country spies on millions of phone calls in conflict areas around the world and shares that data with allies, including the United States.

Lt. Gen. Kjell Grandhagen, head of the Nordic country’s military intelligence agency, says some of the calls involved Norwegian citizens. He said his agency’s actions were legal under Norwegian law when there are suspicions of terrorism-related activity.

Grandhagen told reporters Tuesday that Norway’s foreign intelligence agency shares the data “with several partners,” including the National Security Agency in the United States.

He stressed that the data is related to combatting terrorism and is collected to support Norwegian military operations abroad.

Grandhagen denied a media report that NSA had intercepted some 33 million Norwegian phone calls.

(AP)