WASHINGTON (AFP) - The House of Representatives passed landmark reforms on Thursday curbing US bulk collection of Americans' telephone records, the first step toward restricting NSA intelligence-gathering since Edward Snowden divulged the secret programme last year.

The reforms, backed by the White House, lost the support of civil liberties groups and tech companies like Google and Microsoft after the Obama administration demanded changes to the bill that critics say watered down strict limits on collection of phone records and other personal data.