Countries face US wrath as Snowden looks for assylum in Ecuador

The United States has warned countries against giving shelter to fugitive Edward Snowden, a former CIA contractor who is charged by the US government of felony for letting out US secrets of US internet and phone surveillance.

Snowden, who travelled to Moscow from Hong Kong, is on his way to Ecuador  through Havana and Venezuela.

Reports said he will board an early afternoon flight out of Moscow to the Cuban capital Havana.

The Russian government is unlikely to oblige the US request to "look at all options available" to expel him to the US on spying charges. Snowden, however, is trying to avoid any country that may hand him over to the US.

For Russia, at least, there is  "no grounds" to arrest and deport Snowden as he has done nothing to invite such action.

Russia's Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed Russian official as saying: "Snowden has not committed any crimes on Russian territory. ..In addition, Russian law-enforcement agencies have received no instructions through Interpol to detain him. So we have no grounds to detain this transit passenger."

As the US has been in touch with most Western countries through which Snowden might transit, Snowden will also try to avoid any country that might arrest him on behalf of the US.

Meanwhile, Ecuadorian foreign minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in Vietnam that his government was analysing Snowden's request for assylum. "We take care of human rights," he added.

Ecuador is already giving political asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, who has been sheltering in its London embassy for the past year.

Wikileaks said in a statement that Snowden is being escorted by diplomats and legal advisers from Wikileaks and that the US-Ecuador extradition treaty will not apply to "crimes or offences of a political character".

Wikileaks said Snowden's asylum request would be formally processed when he arrived in Ecuador.

Snowden had left his home in Hawaii after leaking details of his work as an National Security Agency (NSA) analyst and the extensive US surveillance programme to the UK's The Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post.

Snowden, who reveled that the US has been systematically tapping phone and web data under an NSA programme known as Prism, has been charged in the US with theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified communications intelligence.

Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

A desperate Obama administration is expected to use all means to get its hands on Snowden before he reveals any more secrets.

Snowden has become a traitor in the eyes of several prominent politicians as they suspect that countries like Russia and China too have played some roles.

US officials have defended the practice of gathering telephone and internet data from private users around the world.

They claim that Prism cannot be used to intentionally target any Americans or anyone in the US, and that it is supervised by judges.