WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - Saying his e-mails are likely monitored by intelligence agencies, former President Jimmy Carter is using an old-fashioned method of communication with world leaders these days - the post office.

"As a matter of fact, you know, I have felt that my own communications are probably monitored," Carter told NBC's "Meet the Press" in an interview that aired on Sunday.

"And when I want to communicate with a foreign leader privately, I type or write a letter myself, put it in the post office, and mail it," he added.

Asked about disclosures of sweeping US surveillance activities, Carter, a Democrat who served as president from 1977 to 1981, said the practice "has been extremely liberalised and, I think, abused by our own intelligence agencies."