Ecuador denied today that it gave a travel document to fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden that allowed him to travel from Hong Kong to Russia.
"This is not true. There is no passport, no document that was delivered by any Ecuadoran consulate," senior foreign ministry official Galo Galarza told reporters.
"He doesn't have a document supplied by Ecuador like a passport or a refugee card as has been mentioned," Galarza added.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been assisting the fugitive, said on Monday that Quito had issued Snowden a "refugee document of passage" after the United States revoked the former National Security Agency contractor's passport.
Snowden, who has applied for political asylum in Ecuador, spent a fourth day at a Moscow airport today with his travel plans still a mystery after he failed to show up for a flight to Cuba on which he was booked on Monday.
Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said earlier during a visit to Malaysia that it could take weeks to decide whether to grant asylum to Snowden.
But he later backpedalled, writing on Twitter that reporters had misinterpreted him and that it could take "one day, one week, or like it happened for Assange, it could take two months."
Ecuador, led by leftist President Rafael Correa, has been sheltering Assange at its embassy in London since August last year as he faces extradition to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault.
