Washington, Jan 20 (IANS): US President Donald Trump has signed a bill into law to renew a controversial foreign intelligence surveillance programme.

The bill, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was set to expire on Friday, now got a six-year extension.

"The Act renews the authority of the United States under section 702 of FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) to collect foreign intelligence on foreign targets overseas," the White House said in a statement on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It also permits our Nation's defenders to share information that prevents terrorist attacks and cyber crimes," it said.

The US government has been highly criticized for secretly collecting phone and online data on US and foreign citizens, following the 2013 leaks by the intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

In 2015, US Congress voted to end a controversial surveillance program under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the US National Security Agency's secret phone metadata collection on Americans.

Under Section 702, the US government is supposed to target foreigners overseas without a warrant, but Americans' communications -- even those in the United States -- reportedly can be snared if they are part of conversations that the targets are having.