BAGHDAD: Iraq will seek an explanation from US officials about a report asserting the United States spied on Iraqi officials, including Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, the Iraqi government spokesman said yesterday.

The Washington Post said yesterday that a book by US journalist Bob Woodward reported that the United States spied on Al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders.

“If it is true ... it reflects that there is no trust,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said in a statement. Iraq will ask the United States for an explanation, he said.

“If it is true it casts a shadow on the future relations with such institutions,” he added, referring to the Central Intelligence Agency and other US agencies.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to comment on the report, detailed in Woodward’s fourth book on US President George W. Bush, entitled “The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008.” “We have extensive cooperation with Prime Minister Maliki. Our ambassador sees him almost daily,” Perino told reporters.

Woodward wrote that the surveillance of the Iraqi prime minister caused concern among several senior US officials, who questioned whether it was worth the risk given Bush’s efforts to earn Al-Maliki’s trust, The Washington Post reported.

“The book portrays an administration riven by dissension, either unwilling or slow to confront the deterioration of its strategy in Iraq during the summer and early fall of 2006,” The Post said.