The spying spanned 2006 to 2012, French newspaper Liberation and the Mediapart website said [EPA]
WikiLeaks said its "" files include secret NSA intelligence reports and technical documents on the communications of high-level French officials over the past 10 years.
The documents derive from NSA surveillance of Hollande as well as former presidents Sarkozy (2007–2012) and Chirac (1995–2007). French cabinet ministers and the French ambassador to the United States were also targeted.
Among the issues addressed in the intercepted communications were "some of the most pressing issues facing France and the international community," WikiLeaks said, including the global financial crisis, the Greek debt crisis and the leadership of the European Union.
French efforts "to determine the make-up of the executive staff of the United Nations, French involvement in the conflict in Palestine and a dispute between the French and US governments over" were also discussed.
The latest revelations are likely to ignite a firestorm of controversy in France, as did on French and German leaders. Reports that the NSA had wiretapped German Chancellor sparked a political scandal in Germany and prompted an official inquiry into the extent of the German intelligence services' co-operation with the United States.
'Greater insight into US spying'
“While the German disclosures focused on the isolated fact that senior officials were targeted by US intelligence, WikiLeaks’ publication today provides much greater insight into US spying on its allies,” WikiLeaks said.
This includes “the actual content of intelligence products deriving from the intercepts, showing how the US spies on the phone calls of French leaders and ministers for political, economic and diplomatic intelligence”.
France and Germany led a 2013 push to outline a spying "" in conjunction with the United States following reports of NSA monitoring activities that caused an outcry among European citizens.
published on the WikiLeaks website dating from the 1970s revealed that US diplomats at the time were closely monitoring two future French presidents, Chirac and his predecessor, François Mitterrand.
The French president’s office was not immediately reachable for comment.
WikiLeaks said French readers could “expect more timely and important revelations in the near future".
Last week, WikiLeaks published more than 60,000 diplomatic cables from Saudi Arabia and said on its website it would release half a million more in the coming weeks.