Obama seeks to calm Snowden tension

US President Barack Obama has sought to calm tensions surrounding fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden's stay in a Moscow airport.

Signs are also growing that Snowden doesn't possess documents allowing him to travel further.

Snowden, who is wanted by the US authorities for leaking sensational details of US surveillance to the media, is said by the Kremlin to have been in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport since arriving on a flight from Hong Kong on Sunday.

But in a mystery that has captivated the world, there has not been a single sighting of Snowden at the airport and his onward travel plans remain an enigma after he failed to board a flight on which he was booked to Havana on Monday.

The episode risks further ratcheting up tensions between Washington and Moscow, as well as Beijing, which are already strained by the conflict in Syria.

But Obama insisted the United States - which has revoked Snowden's passport - would not scramble jets to intercept him should he fly from Russia.

"I am not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker," Obama said on a visit to Senegal, oddly giving the wrong age for the 30-year-old former National Security Agency (NSA) technician.

Obama also said he had not called the President Xi Jinping of China or Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the issue.

Putin has indicated that Moscow is keen to see the back of its unexpected visitor, while also strongly rejecting US pressure to hand over Snowden as the two countries have no extradition treaty.

"The sooner this (he flies onwards from Moscow) happens, the better," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Ecuador, whose embassy in London is already giving refuge to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he faces extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault, has said it is considering an asylum request from Snowden.

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