“Mr. Snowden is not in Ecuadorean territory and to process an asylum request that is what is required,” the country’s president, Rafael Correa, said during a news conference on Thursday in Quevedo, in western Ecuador. “We received the asylum request, we have studied it and that is precisely the first conclusion, that to process it to finally approve it or deny it he must be in Ecuadorean territory.”

Asked if he had considered bringing Mr. Snowden to Ecuador or to one of his country’s embassies, he said, “No.”

Mr. Correa also disputed assertions made earlier in the week by Mr. Assange and others that Mr. Snowden had been given travel documents by Ecuador that assured him safe passage to the country.

“The government has not authorized any safe-conduct or refugee permit for Mr. Snowden,” Mr. Correa said. Referring to a safe-conduct document that appeared to have been issued by Ecuador’s embassy in London, he said that if it turned out to be authentic, “whoever issued it is totally without authority.”

Saying they would not bow to threats, officials in Ecuador also announced that they were unilaterally renouncing preferential trade privileges given to the country by the United States. Those privileges, which apply to Ecuadorean exports worth hundreds of millions of dollars, were to expire at the end of July, and were unlikely to be renewed by Congress because of the strained relationship between the two countries. Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned Ecuador on Wednesday that its “trade preferences could be revoked” if it granted Mr. Snowden’s asylum request.