Lah-dih-dah and airy-fairy: Cameron's swipe at the Guardian as he defends intelligence services over eavesdropping claims David Cameron condemned "lah-dih-dah, airy-fairy" criticism of the British and American intelligence services last night. The Prime Minister said his fellow EU leaders should stop complaining about snooping by GCHQ and the NSA because British spies have saved their citizens from terrorist attack. And in a clear assault on the Guardian, he accused whistleblower Edward Snowden and "newspapers helping him," of giving assistance to terrorists "who want to blow up our families." No meeting of minds: David Cameron with Germany's Angela Merkel at the EU summit in Brussels yesterday Mr Cameron has been on the defensive at the EU summit in Brussels amid claims that the US bugged the mobile phone of German chancellor Angela Merkel. Brussels sources said he was given a "hard time" because EU leaders believe UK spies were passed intelligence on 35 world leaders who were victims of eavesdropping by the US National Security Agency. The Prime Minister flatly refused to say whether he has seen transcripts of Mrs Merkel's conversations. She has called the bugging operation "not on." Mr Cameron was also put on the spot over claims by Snowden that the GCHQ listening station in Cheltenham listened in on Italian politicians after tapping into fibre optic cables in Sicily. Italian premier Enrico Letta said before the meeting: "It is inconceivable and unacceptable that there should be acts of espionage of this type." But Mr Cameron rejected the criticism. Asked directly about claims of the UK spying on Italy, the Prime Minister said: "The first priority of a prime minister is to try to keep your country safe and that means not having some lah-dih-dah, airy-fairy view. It means understanding that intelligence and security services do an important job. We need those people. They are brave people who help to keep us safe. I've lost count of the plots that I've seen being avoided by the work that they do. That is important, not just for Britain. They actually help to keep people safe in other European countries too because we share so much intelligence and information with our EU partners. I make no apology for that. Mr Cameron said those like Snowden and the Guardian, which has published details of how GCHQ and the NSA operate, are guilty of "helping our enemies." He said: "There are people in the world who want to do us harm, who want to blow up our families, who want to maim people in our country. What Snowden is doing and to an extent what the newspapers are doing in helping him is frankly signalling to people who mean to do us harm, how to evade and avoid intelligence and surveillance and other techniques. That is not going to make our world safer. It's going to make our world more dangerous. The Prime Minister praised Britain's "very strong, unique, intelligence partnership with the United States" and Britain's spies. "These are some of the most talented and bright and hard-working and dedicated officials in our country," he said. They love our country. We should thank them rather than try to make their work more difficult. Mr Cameron spoke out as security officials in London revealed that Mr Cameron's own calls with other world leaders who were bugged would have been listened to. The White House insists American spies have never targeted the Prime Minister's phones. But a security source told the BBC: "They would have listened in as matter of course. It's inevitable that they would have heard some of his conversations. Mr Cameron's counterblast came after he was pressured into signing a statement with other EU leaders expressing concern at the way the US has been spying. They "expressed their conviction that the partnership must be based on respect and trust, including as concerns the work and co-operation of secret services." Britain also went along with a related condemnation of spying between EU nations. Mrs Merkel suggested Mr Cameron had bitten his tongue in the meeting, saving his remarks for a post-summit press conference. She said: "David Cameron was present at the discussion. He listened to it. He wasn't against it. That was silent acquiescence. Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato, said EU leaders shouldn't be shocked by the revelations of widespread snooping. I can't believe anyone is terribly surprised. As a government official for many years I assumed that my cellphone and email account were susceptible to spying," he said. I do think that this level of outrage is done more for political reasons than real outrage. Israel was behind the hacking of millions of French phones, not the US, it was claimed yesterday. Mossad agents are said to have intercepted more than 70million calls and text messages a month. Until now the French have blamed the Americans, even summoning the US ambassador to provide an explanation. But yesterday's Le Monde newspaper said Mossad was to blame. France first suspected the US of hacking into former president Nicolas Sarkozy's communications network when he was unsuccessfully running for re-election last year. Intelligence officials went to Washington to demand an explanation, but the US hinted that the Israelis were to blame, Le Monde said. The Americans insisted they had never been behind any hacking in France, and were keen to get on with the French, whom they viewed as one of their closest allies. The article was co-authored by US journalist Glenn Greenwald, whose main contact is National Security Agency whistle-blower Edward Snowden. He hints that Israel was doing the spying and says the NSA called Mossad "the third most aggressive intelligence service in the world against the US."