Stakes are high as world leaders meet with a critical deadline looming, and covert surveillance activity is dense � but Lausanne is less of a hotspot than Vienna

On a few occasions during the recent Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna, the microwave radiation from the surveillance efforts of competing intelligence agencies was so intense that diplomats had to walk some distance from the venue to use their mobile phones.

The density of espionage activity around the marathon negotiations reflects the extremely high stakes for the Middle East and for future global proliferation. The allegations of Israeli spying made by senior US officials to�the Wall Street Journa lcame as little surprise to intelligence analysts and officials involved in the talks. It is more noteworthy that the Obama administration chose to go public with the story.

In Lausanne, Switzerland, where the talks are due to resume on Wednesday before a critical deadline at the end of March, British and French officials wandered off into the gardens of the venue, the Beau-Rivage Palace hotel, to call their capitals rather than try to speak from their rooms. But Lausanne is generally seen as being under lighter surveillance than venues in Geneva and Vienna, where there are long-established spy networks from several countries.

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