MOSCOW - US fugitive Edward Snowden's struggle to find a safe haven sparked a diplomatic row Tuesday after Bolivia President Evo Morales' plane was diverted to Austria over suspicions he might be on board.

The incident happened hours after Morales had said his country would consider a request for political asylum if Snowden submitted one.

Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca accused France, Italy and Portugal of having denied airspace to the plane, forcing it to reroute.

"The president was forced to land in Vienna," he told reporters in La Paz. Morales's life had been endangered by what he described as a forced emergency landing, he added.

"There were unfounded rumours that Mr Snowden may have been on board the aircraft," Choquehuanca said.

"We have no idea who made up this huge lie."

Austrian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg confirmed to AFP that Morales' plane had landed at Vienna and that Snowden was not on board.

"President Morales will leave early Wednesday morning for La Paz," the Bolivian capital, he added. Austria did not know why the plane had landed at Vienna, he said.

Officials at the French foreign ministry and the prime minister's office said they knew nothing about the incident.

Earlier Tuesday, Morales had been asked about Snowden's bid for a haven, as Washington sought his extradition for having leaked intelligence secrets.

"If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea," Morales told Russia's state-run RT television in comments translated from Spanish.

Bolivia is one of 21 nations to which Snowden had applied for asylum, according to the website of the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which helped file the requests.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday Snowden had already withdrawn his application there. Putin made it clear on Sunday that he would have to end revelations about US intelligence activities if he wanted to stay.

A number of other countries on his list were quick to either reject his application or give it a cool reaction.

Germany, the Netherlands and Poland rejected Snowden's asylum bid; an Indian foreign ministry said there was "no reason to accede to the request"; Brazil said it was "not going to respond".

Austria, Finland, Iceland and Norway each said Snowden's request was invalid because it was not filed from inside their respective countries. Ireland and Spain issued similar statements.

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing said they knew nothing about a bid apart from media reports.

France and Switzerland said they had not yet received an application, while Italy said it was "contemplating" the request.