US admits contact with other countries over potential Snowden flights – as it happened

We're ending our live coverage of the diplomatic crisis over the Morales flight. Our latest news story has just been published and can be read here.

Here is a summary of events today.

 A jet carrying the Bolivian president is on its way home after being forced to land at Vienna airport because of the refusal of some European countries to let it pass through their airspace. Eva Morales was returning from a visit to Moscow. He called it "an excuse to scare, intimidate and punish me". 

The US government has admitted that it had been in contact with other nations about potential flights involving Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower. The State Department would not comment on whether it had made any specific respresentations over Morales's flight.

 Bolivian and Austrian authorities insisted Snowden was not on the plane. The extent to which the Austrian police officers searched the jet was unclear.

 An Austrian official told AP that Morales's aircraft asked controllers at Vienna airport to land because there was "no clear indication" that the plane had enough fuel to continue on its journey. This tallies with audio posted online purporting to be of a conversation between the jet pilot and the control room at the airport. 

 Bolivia's UN ambassador has said that the country will file a formal complaint with the United Nations over the "kidnapping" of Morales. A number of South American leaders voiced outrage at the incident, including the Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner and Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador.

Paul Owen has just been speaking to Ronald Guzman, a Bolivian engineer living in Munich, about Bolivian reaction to what seems to have been US pressure on European countries not to allow Evo Morales's plane to pass through their airspace (see earlier post ).

Guzman said the move was "a sign that some countries, mainly in Europe, behave like colonies of the United States. This is a shame for Europe." He said the US would never have treated a European president, or the presidents of China or Russia in such a way. 

They did that because it was a small country. No country would dare to do that with China or Russia, because such a stupid act could be a reason for war. 

There is no excuse for this. I find it ignorant [of others] to accept and defend such an act. Fortunately most Europeans are ashamed of this and you can read that in most newspapers in Europe.

Our Washington bureau chief, Dan Roberts, has been at the State Department briefing. Spokeswoman Jen Psaki has confirmed that the US has been in contact with countries that had a "chance" of Snowden flying through their air space:

We have been in contact with a range of countries that had a chance of having Snowden land or travel through their country but I am not going to outline what those countries were or when this [contact] happened.

She refused to confirm or deny any specific involvement with Morale's flight or address questions on whether it was a breach of diplomatic protocol, saying these were matters for Europeans to address. 

Jonathan Watts, our Latin America correspondent, says that the Bolivian defence minister, Ruben Saavedra, has denied that anyone had boarded the plane. There were reports earlier that the plane had been inspected in Austria, but Saavedra has stoked confusion, saying that Morales had refused entry to officials, and that they had only got as far as the door of the aircraft.

The whereabouts of Edward Snowden remain unclear.

A jet carrying the Bolivian president is on its way home after being forced to land at Vienna airport because of the refusal of some European countries to let it pass through their airspace. Eva Morales was returning from a visit to Moscow. He called it "an excuse to scare, intimidate and punish me". 

 Morales was stranded at the airport for 14 hours amid suspicions that the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board his plane. Both the Bolivian and Austrian authorities insisted Snowden was not on the plane, although the extent to which the Austrian police officers searched the jet was unclear.

An Austrian official told AP that Morales's aircraft asked controllers at Vienna airport to land because there was "no clear indication" that the plane had enough fuel to continue on its journey. This tallies with audio posted online purporting to be of a conversation between the jet pilot and the control room at the airport. 

The Austrian government said it was given permission by Morales to search the plane but Bolivia's vice-president Alvaro Garcia denied this, saying the jet was entitled to immunity. He said Morales had been "kidnapped by imperialism", while the Bolivian foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, accused France and Portugal of putting the president's life at risk by cancelling authorisation for the plane.

Bolivia's UN ambassador has said that the country will file a formal complaint with the United Nations over the "kidnapping" of Morales.

A number of South American leaders voiced outrage at the incident, including the Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner and Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador.

 Latin American presidents plan an emergency meeting today to discuss the diversion of the plane. The time of the meeting of Unasur (the Union of South American Nations) has not been revealed.

Sara Shahriari in La Paz sends this quote from Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, Sacha Llorenti on his country's demands to the UN:

We will demand appropriate explanations from those countries that submitted to North American imperialism and briefly put President Morales in such a helpless situation.

According to the Flightradar24 website, Morales's plane has left the Canary Islands and is now heading out over the Atlantic. You can follow it's progress here.

Sara Shahriari writes from La Paz that Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti, has said that the country will file a formal complaint with the United Nations over the "kidnapping" of Morales, according to Bolivian state media Patria Nueva.

Meanwhile, La Paz-based daily La Razon tweets that the National Coordinator for Change, a group which represents several labour and indigenous organisations, will rally at 6pm tonight local time in central La Paz to welcome Morales home.

Edward Snowden misused his right to digital access and has created problems that outweigh the benefits of public disclosure, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has said.

Ban said that in his personal opinion "the Snowden case is something I consider to be misuse." The UN chief added that the opening up of digital communications should not be "misused in such a way as Snowden did".

James Brokenshire, Britain's security minister, has claimed that leaks of "highly sensitive information" can undermine national security, although he said he was not commenting specifically on the Guardian's Edward Snowden revelations. The Conservative minister told Reuters:

Disclosure of highly sensitive information can be damaging. It can certainly undermine our security, certainly it can put lives at risk. It provides a partial view and it can undermine the very security and actions our intelligence and other agencies are engaged in to keep us all safe.

Asked if the disclosures would damage intelligence sharing in the future, Brokenshire said countries recognised they had to work together to combat threats. "I have every confidence that will continue to be the case," he said.

He said balancing civil liberties and spies' attempts to protect national security was a "quandary" but added:

This isn't about trying to read everybody's emails, trying to spy and pry into everyone's day to day activities. We must always be focused on ensuring our agencies are able to conduct their activities at times in secret because the threats that we face are prepared in secret.

The secretary general of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) has confirmed that Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa has asked for an urgent meeting over the Morales incident.

My colleague Jonathan Watts in Rio de Janeiro has filed this story on the furious Latin American reaction to the Morales aeroplane incident.

He quotes the foreign minister of Ecuador, Ricardo Patiño Aroca, as saying:

We will not allow this affront against a Latin American leader.

And José Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organisation of American States, said:

Nothing justifies an action as disrespectful to the highest authority of a country.

The US has remained silent on whether it did indeed put pressure on France, Spain, Portugal and Italy not to allow Morales's plane to fly through their airspace.

The Associated Press has a good round-up on the responses of France, Portugal, Italy and Spain to Bolivia's claims those countries would not let Morales's plane fly through their airspace.

French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said: "France ended up authorising the flight over its airspace by Mr Morales's plane." She said that the plane was "authorised to fly over French territory", but wouldn't say whether there had been an initial refusal last night.

The Portuguese foreign ministry said that Portugal had granted permission for the plane to fly through its airspace but declined Bolivia's request for a refuelling stop in Lisbon due to unspecified technical reasons.

Italian officials have not spoken out about the matter.

Spain, where Morales's plane is due to refuel during its current journey, denied Bolivian claims that it only agreed to allow the plane to refuel in the Canaries if Bolivian authorities allowed it to be inspected. The foreign minister said this was not the case. The prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said authorisation was given for the refuelling stop but that it was important that Snowden was not aboard.

France has called for the trade negotiations between the US and the EU to be put on hold for two weeks in the wake of Guardian and Spiegel revelations about America eavesdropping on its European allies.

"It seems wise to us to suspend [the talks] temporarily, for a period of 15 days," French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said.

But Paris has never been that keen on the trade deal and the rest of the EU is unlikely to agree.

Jim Roberts of Reuters quotes Sacha Llorenti Soliz, the Bolivian ambassador to the UN, as also using the charged term "kidnapped" to describe the aeroplane incident. (The Bolivian vice president, Alvaro Garcia, said overnight that Evo Morales had been "kidnapped by imperialiam".)

In a statement (in Spanish), the office of the Bolivian presidency says Morales is due to arrive in Bolivia at about 8.30pm local time (1.30am BST).

It says his jet will stop in the Canary Islands for refuelling (Spain was previously denying the jet permission to land for refuelling unless the plane could be searched in Vienna, according to Bolivia) and Brazil.

The statement referred to the claims that Snowden was on board as "baseless". 

Index on Censorship has called on EU members to honour their commitments to freedom of expression, following the reports that some countries prevented the plane carrying Morales from entering their airspace. 

Chief executive Kirsty Hughes said: 

Members of the EU have a duty to protect freedom of expression and should not interfere in an individual’s rights to seek asylum. Edward Snowden is a whistleblower whose free speech rights should be protected not criminalised.

Latin American presidents plan an emergency meeting today to discuss the diversion to Austria of a plane carrying the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, the Bolivian ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti Soliz, has said (via Reuters). 

The Bolivian plane, which was taking Morales home from Moscow, was stranded and searched in Vienna on suspicion that it might be carrying fugitive US intelligence analyst Edward Snowden. A search determined that Snowden was not onboard and the plane eventually left Vienna about noon on Wednesday. 

"We have been told that an emergency meeting of Unasur [Union of South American Nations] is going to be held today," Sacha Llorenti Soliz told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday. No time for the meeting was mentioned. 

"What's at stake here is … the dignity of Bolivia and the dignity of Latin America," he said, adding that the presidents of Peru, Ecuador and Argentina had all spoken with Morales about the incident. 

The Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, told a news conference in Geneva that he had not received any request for such a meeting. 

In not totally unrelated news, Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, says Ecuador has found a hidden microphone inside its London embassy, where the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is living, and it will disclose on Wednesday who controls the device. He described it as "another instance of a loss of ethics at the international level in relations between governments".

WikiLeaks linked the bugging to the blockading of Morales's jet, describing it as another instance of "imperial arrogance".

My colleague Angelique Chrisafis sent this update from Paris – it seems France is keen to draw a line under the matter.

In a briefing, the French foreign office spokesman was asked why France had closed its airspace to Morales's flight, and was asked to detail exactly when requests had been made by Bolivia for the flight to cross French airspace. The spokesman said only: “Authorisation to fly over [French] national territory has been given to the Bolivian president's flight. We don't want to stoke any controversy on this subject via the press.”

In Vienna, an official has told AP that Morales's aircraft asked controllers at Vienna airport to land because there was "no clear indication" that the plane had enough fuel to continue on its journey. 

This suggests that the audio purporting to be of the conversation between the plane's pilot and the controllers at the airport, published earlier on the blog, was genuine.

The Austrian official, who demanded anonymity because he was not authorised to go public with the information, said Austrian authorities could not comment on whether the plane was denied overflights by other countries.

With uncanny timing, given events over the past 24 hours, the Reporters Without Borders general secretary, Christophe Deloire, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange have co-signed an op-ed in Le Monde calling on EU states to protect Edward Snowden. It says:

On 12 October 2012, the European Union won the Nobel peace prize for contributing to the “advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”. The EU should show itself worthy of this honour and show its will to defend freedom of information, regardless of fears of political pressure from its so-called closest ally, the United States …

This young man [Snowden] will remain abandoned in the transit zone of the Moscow airport only if the European countries abandon their principles, as well as a major part of the raison d’être of the EU. Expressions of diplomatic outrage will be empty gestures if the person responsible for the revelations is left isolated and abandoned.

Individual European Union member states have the right to refuse access to their airspace but it was unclear why France and Portugal cancelled air permits for a plane carrying the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, an EU commission spokeswoman said. She told Reuters: 

At the moment it is not entirely clear what happened this morning, why the French and Portuguese decided to divert the flight.

But she added that it was a sovereign responsibility of EU member states to decide whether to refuse access to an aircraft and the EU had no powers in the area.

My Guardian colleague Glenn Greenwald, who was approached by Edward Snowden with the NSA files, tweets, citing an Austrian journalist, that airport police officers were only allowed to "walk through" the plane. 

Bolivia's ambassador to the UN has said that Austria's decision to search the plane was an act of aggression and a violation of international law, while Austria's deputy chancellor has said Morales granted permission to search it. 

Bolivia's ambassador to the UN, Sacha Llorenti also said Austria's decision to search the plane was an act of aggression and a violation of international law, according to Reuters. Earlier, Morales referred to his Austrian counterpart Heinz Fischer as his "brother".

Austria's deputy chancellor Michael Spindelegger claimed that Morales "agreed to a voluntary inspection".

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So, after a stopover of more than 12 hours at Vienna airport, Morales is on his way. But the diplomatic row is set to run.

Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations in New York said the refusal to let his president's plane cross over European airspace was an act of aggression that should have consequences, AP reports. 

Sacha Llorenti told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday that France, Portugal, Spain and Italy "violated international law" when they blocked President Evo Morales's plane that was returning from a trip to Moscow, based on suspicions NSA leaker Edward Snowden might be aboard.

"We interpret this as an aggression," and will ask the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, to intervene, he said on Wednesday. 

Llorenti says "the orders came from the United States" but other nations violated the immunity of the president and his plane, putting his life at risk.

French and Spanish officials have reportedly denied that they refused access to their airspace. Bolivia said Spain agreed to allow the plane to refuel in the Canary Islands but only if Bolivian authorities agreed to allow it to be inspected.

A spokesman at Vienna airport has confirmed that Morales's plane has left. He said it departed at around 11.30am (10.30am BST).

You can follow the flight of the plane in real time on Flight Radar 24. (Thanks to @WalterWX for the link)

The Bolivian president's plane has left (with Morales on board), the Austrian reporter Tanja Malle tweets.

The photojournalist Matthias Cremer, who is at Vienna airport, tweets that the Bolivian president is boarding the plane. 

Given the constant to-ing and fro-ing of the last few hours, it's too soon to say Morales is definitely on his way …

This is very strange. AP is reporting that both French and Spanish officials have denied refusing to let Morales's plane cross their respective airspace.

French officials denied on Wednesday that France refused to let the Bolivian president's plane cross over its airspace amid suspicions that NSA leaker Edward Snowden was aboard. Spain, too, said the plane was free to cross its territory …

Bolivian officials said that France, Portugal, Spain and Italy blocked the plane from flying over their territories, and angrily demanded explanation …

Two officials with the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Morales's plane had authorisation to fly over France. They would not comment on why Bolivian officials said otherwise. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to be publicly named according to ministry policy.

An official with Spain's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the country on Tuesday authorised Morales's plane to fly within its airspace and to make a refuelling stop. The official said Bolivia asked again this morning for permission and got it. She spoke on condition of anonymity because of department rules.

The Spanish government has not just annoyed Morales and Bolivia with its refusal to allow his plane through its airspace. The Austrian foreign minister, Michael Spindelegger, is also annoyed. He reportedly said:

We don´t understand why Spain is acting like that.

He also maintained that Austrian officials had been on the plane and Snowden was not there. Journalists at the airport had earlier suggested that Austrian authorities could not conclusively attest to Snowden not being on board as the jet's crew were saying no one had been allowed on to the plane.

Morales said he refused a request by the Spanish authorities to inspect his plane in Vienna and has not been granted permission to use Spanish airspace, according to Reuters.

It appears that Morales's path may not have been cleared after all. The Austrian reporter Tanja Malle tweets that at another press conference, this time with Morales and ambassadors from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (Alba), it was said that Spain was still not opening its airspace to his flight. 

The Austrian president, Heinz Fischer, said at a press conference at Vienna airport: 

The flight route is normal, as far as I am informed. Spain's airspace is also open for him. [Morales] will resume his trip shortly.

Audio has been posted purporting to be of the conversation between a pilot aboard Morales's flight and the control room at Vienna airport. 

Although the Guardian cannot 100% verify the audio, it comes from a source who has a record of monitoring aviation communications. (In this 2011 article, Huub, also known online as “BlackBox” and @FMCNL, is described as a former member of the Dutch military who has been monitoring radio frequency scanners, amplifiers, and antennas for more than 25 years.)

Part of the conversation goes:

“Do you need any assistance?”

“Not at this moment. We need to land because we cannot get a correct indication of the fuel indication … we need to land.”

This problem might indicate why the Bolivian foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, accused France and Portugal of putting the president's life at risk by cancelling authorisation for the plane. But it is hard to believe that those countries would have refused permission to pass through its airspace if a problem was reported. 

A press officer at Vienna airport said she could not confirm whether or not the audio recording was genuine. 

Austria allowed Morales's plane to land because it had no fear that Snowden might be on board, an Austrian foreign ministry spokesman told ORF radio. He said:

Austria did not close its airspace and the plane could of course land although many other countries apparently feared that Snowden was on board too. Austria did not do that, which means there is no fear here.

Austrian officials have said that Snowden is not on board. But a journalist on the ground said it was impossible for them to ascertain this as, according to the plane crew, they were not allowed to enter the jet (as it is a presidential plane they can restrict access).

Embedded at the top of this page or by clicking this link you can watch video of Morales speaking to the media at Vienna airport. He looks stunned and simply says:

We're waiting, I'm sure there are discussions going on.

Helen Davidson and I in Sydney are handing over the blog to our colleague Haroon Siddique in London.

Click here for a summary of events so far.

Rafael Correa, the president of Ecuador, has also railed against what he called an "affront to our America", and called on his fellow South American presidents to "take action".

Posting on Twitter, Correa wrote: “Decisive hours for UNASUR! Either we graduated from the colonies, or we claim our independence, sovereignty and dignity. We are all Bolivia!”

Correa said he was trying to convene a UNASUR meeting with other South American leaders.

Another image has been tweeted by the Der Standard journalist Olivera Stajić. This one shows crew members sleeping at the airport, apparently whilst news reports of Edward Snowden are transmitted in the background.

We have translated more tweets from Argentinian president, Cristina Kirchner. She says she is in regular contact with Morales and has expressed outrage at the ongoing diplomatic incident.

The president said she had spoken to Morales on the phone, and offered legal assistance.

According to the Guardian’s translations, Kirchner said “if Austria does not let them out or wants to check the plane, he can present to the International Court of Justice to ask for a preliminary injunction.”

“I don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” she continued, adding that they can send a judge to Austria.

“Mother of God! What a world!” she exclaimed.

Kirchner said she had spoken to Uruguay president José Mujica who was “indignant” at the “humiliating situation”, and she agreed.

Kirchner said she will also speak again with president Rafael Correa of Ecuador.

Photographs of president Morales and defence minister Ruben Saavedra Soto at the Vienna international airport have arrived:

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Here is a summary of events so far:

• A major diplomatic incident has occured after a jet carrying the president of Bolivia was rerouted to Austria. Various European countries prevented the plane from overflying their airspace, amidst suspicions NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was onboard.
• Austrian foreign ministry officials subsequently said Snowden was not onboard. Morales, along with the Bolivian defence minister, remain at Vienna international airport.
• The defence minister has said that France, Portugal, Italy and Spain had prevented the jet from entering their airspace. The airspace ban is still being enforced by Spanish authorities. He blamed the decisions on pressure from the US government.
• A number of South American states have voiced outrage at the incident, and, according to Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner, the Peruvian president Ollanta Humala has called a meeting of the Union of South American Nations to discuss the ongoing events.
• The Bolivian vice president, Alvaro Garcia, said Morales had been "kidnapped by imperialiam".

Argentinian president Cristina Kirchner has tweeted that she has been advised that Peruvian president Ollanta Humala will call a meeting of the Union of South American Nations to discuss ongoing events.

Kirchner said "tomorrow is going to be a long and difficult day. Be calm. They will not be able to."

(This is the Guardian's translation of her tweet in Spanish)

Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia has delivered a midnight press conference on the incident, AP reports.

He described Morales as being "kidnapped by imperialism" in Europe and said that the Spanish authorities were not allowing Morales' plane to enter their airspace.

The ambassador for Spain in Austria has just informed us that there is no authorization to fly over Spanish territory and that at 9 a.m. Wednesday they would be in contact with us again

Tanja Malle the Austrian broadcast journalist present at Vienna international airport says Morales has spoken to journalists there. She has tweeted a number of his comments, which we have embedded below.

• Malle says Morales has been in contact with Cristina Kirchner, the president of Argentina, and others in South America to organise a solution to the episode.
• Malle says Morales has permission from Italy, France and Portugal to overfly their airspace, but is still waiting on Spain.

Here are her tweets:

Cuba's Foreign Ministry have released a statement condemning the incident, CNN reports.

CNN quote an extract from the statement:

This constitutes an unacceptable, unfounded and arbitrary act which offends all of Latin America and the Caribbean.

The report also quotes Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino who has spoken to reporters. He said:

We consider this a huge offense, and I will call for a UNASUR special summit with foreign secretaries to discuss this issue.

Bolivian defence minister Ruben Saavedra has said that Portugal and France have reconsidered the airspace ban and will now allow Morales' plane to overfly both countries, Reuters reports.

However, Saavedra says that Italy and Spain have refused to allow the plane to enter their air space.

It is unclear if these comments were made during Saavedra's initial press conference or whether they were delivered subsequently.

He said:

Two countries have changed their positions, first France and now Portugal. We will patiently seek to resolve the negative position taken by Italy and Spain, according to international norms.

A journalist with Der Standard, a national daily newspaper in Austria, has tweeted another photograph of Morales at the airport.

My colleague Helen Davidson has spoken to Tanja Malle, an Austrian broadcast journalist who is at Vienna international airport and who tweeted photos of president Morales there earlier.

She says that Morales, the defence minister and the rest of the plane's crew have gone into the VIP area of the airport.

Here are Tanja's updates:

Most of the crew are now inside a [separate] room with Morales...

The crew said the are looking forward to leaving. They were told... hours ago that it would only take minutes.

Morales didn't say anything. He was sitting on the couch next to the defence secretary, who was very angry. The rest of the Bolivians are just tired. They do not seem to be in a bad mood or anything.

Here is the full audio:

AP has updated its report to say that Morales remains at Vienna international airport. "Morales will remain at the airport until his plane has been cleared for take-off," the report says.

I've just got off the phone with the WikiLeaks party campaign manager Greg Barns who has shared his thoughts on today's extraordinary events.

Here is the audio:

Two photographs apparently showing the Bolivian president at Vienna international airport have been posted on Twitter. They claim to show Morales listening in to a press conference delivered by the Bolivian defence secretary.

They were taken by Tanja Malle, an Austrian radio journalist. My colleague Helen Davidson will be speaking to Tanja shortly. Here are the pictures in the meantime.

Our Washington bureau chief, Dan Roberts, has been assessing the potential fallout from the diplomatic row over the diversion of Morales's flight to Vienna. He writes:

Though the White House declined to confirm whether it ordered Western European allies to block the diplomatic flight containing Bolivia's president, the affair casts further doubt on promises made by Barack Obama that the US would "not scramble jets" to retrieve the whistleblower who has brought so much embarrassment upon his administration.

When the issue first threatened to overshadow delicate relations with major powers such as China and Russia, the US president went out of his way to stress that he would not expend political capital on "wheeling and dealing" just to bring a 29-year-old hacker to justice. Whether he was setting expectations low for the likelihood of Snowden's capture, or genuinely trying to put the issue in proportion remains unclear, but events since have shown the White House is willing to act far tougher with smaller nations who might contemplate rebellion.

First, Washington successfully leant on Ecuador to reverse it's support for Snowden's asylum claim. Congressional leaders threatened to revoke valuable trade agreements and then vice president Joe Biden followed up with a more diplomatic phone call that led to a marked change in tone from Ecuador's president.

On Tuesday afternoon, the State Department rejected allegations by Snowden that it was bullying nations into withdrawing support. Yet the apparent decision by French, Portuguese and possibly Italian authorities to revoke diplomatic overfly rights simply on the suspicion he might be on board the Bolivian flight suggests that Washington's diplomatic arm-twisting does not need to be overt to be effective.

Of course, all the drama also has the added benefit of distracting attention from the impact of Snowden's revelations. Obama's top intelligence official, James Clapper, has just admitted lying to Congress over whether the US spies on its own people, but you wouldn't know it from watching US TV right now.

AP is reporting that Morales is now spending the night at a Vienna hotel. It also reports Austrian foreign ministry officials have confirmed that Snowden is not on the plane.

AP reports that Venezuela's foreign minister Elias Jaua has condemned the decision by France and Portugal to block the plane from its airspace. He claimed that changing a flight's route without checking on how much fuel was left in the plane, put Morales' life at risk.

He added:

All the countries that have denied permission for the flight of our brother president, Evo Morales, must be held responsible for his life and his dignity as president.

AFP are reporting that Austrian foreign ministry officials have confirmed Edward Snowden is not on the plane.

The report continues:

"President Morales will leave early Wednesday morning for La Paz," the Bolivian capital, ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told AFP. Austria did not know why Morales's plane had landed there, he added.

My colleague Helen Davidson has just been on the phone with general aviation staff at Vienna international airport.

Staff confirmed that the plane carrying Morales has landed there, and has not left. They said they were unable to say how many passengers were on board as they were not given a passenger list.

My colleague in Washington Dan Roberts has just filed this report, which summarises the events so far.

He has also just spoken to White House officials, asking for their response to claims made by the Bolivian defence minister that Portugal's decision to refuse Morales' plane access to their airspace was influenced by the US.

White House officials say that these are questions for the Austrian and Portugese authorities to answer.

President Morales was returning to Bolivia from Russia where he had met with president Vladimir Putin at a summit of major gas exporters in the Kremlin.

Speaking to RT Actualidad, the Spanish-language service of the Russian broadcaster Russia Today, Morales said Bolivia had not received an asylum request from Edward Snowden, but hinted any request would be looked at favourably.

He said:

If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea.

I know that the empires have an espionage network and are against the so-called developing countries. And in particular, against those which are rich in natural resources.

Associated Press has published extracts from a statement issued by the Bolivian defence minister, Ruben Saavedra, who was also on the redirected plane.

It says the plane was allowed to land in Spain for refueling before flying on to Austria.

It describes the rerouting as a "hostile act" by the US goverment:

This is a hostile act by the United States State Department which has used various European governments

Although Associated Press is reporting Morales' plane has landed, the Guardian is still trying to confirm this.

MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes claimed to have found the plane on a flight radar website.

CNN has interviewed the Bolivian defence minister, Ruben Saavedra, who has expressed outrage at the decision to reroute the president's plane. He said the US government was behind the rumours that Snowden was on board.

"This is a lie, a falsehood," he said. "It was generated by the US government."

He added:

It is an outrage. It is an abuse. It is a violation of the conventions and agreements of international air transportation

Associated Press broke the news in the last hour. Here is its original tweet:

The plane carrying the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, from Russia has been rerouted to Austria, following suspicions that the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was on board, leading to a major diplomatic incident.

The Bolivian foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, said French and Portuguese authorities refused to allow the plane to fly through their airspace. He added that rumours Snowden was on board were unfounded.

"We don't know who invented this lie. We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales," Choquehuanca told Associated Press.