SAN FRANCISCO (REUTERS) - Twitter Inc has sued the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation seeking the right to provide more specifics about the extent of US government surveillance and requests for information from federal agencies.

The lawsuit, filed with the US District Court of Northern California on Tuesday, follows an agreement between Internet companies like Google Inc and Microsoft Corp with the government about court orders they receive related to surveillance.

"We've tried to achieve the level of transparency our users deserve without litigation, but to no avail," Twitter said in a blogpost on Tuesday.

Twitter said it was "asking the court to declare these restrictions on our ability to speak about government surveillance as unconstitutional under the First Amendment".