German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called his Afghan counterpart yesterday to apologize for the spying of an Afghan minister by Germany's foreign intelligence service BND.

Steinmeier and his Afghan counterpart Rangin Dadfar Spanta shared the view that the incident would not effect the "good and trusting relations" between the two countries, German news agency DPA quoted a foreign ministry spokeswoman as saying.

German media reported last week that the BND had spied on emails between Afghan Trade Minister Mohammad Amin Farhang and Suzanne Koelbl, a reporter for the German news weekly Der Spiegel.

The scandal has triggered an outcry in Germany with three BND senior officials having been removed from their posts and more officials could be disciplined.

A German parliamentary committee investigating the scandal condemned the fact that BND had not informed the government or the parliament about the case.

It was reported that Sparta had been outraged by the revelation and Farhang has said the BND had endangered his life.

Germany's regional newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung reported that the Afghan government fears that the German intelligence agency may have also spied on other Afghan officials.