Bolivia's president is furious that his plane was diverted over suspicions US fugitive leaker Edward Snowden might be on board.

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

The Bolivian plane had been taking Mr Morales home from Moscow, where Snowden has been holed up in an airport transit since June 23, seeking to avoid US espionage charges for revealing a vast surveillance program.

While in flight, the pilot learned Portugal had refused to allow the plane to land for refuelling.

France, Italy and Spain then banned the plane from entering its airspace, forcing it to land in Vienna.

There, police searched the plane and found no sign of the US fugitive, and the European countries reauthorised the use of their airspace.

Before departing, Mr Morales said the ordeal "was like a near 13-hour kidnapping".

"I am not a delinquent," he said, adding that all of the countries involved would have to explain themselves.

"This is not a provocation against Evo Morales, but against Bolivia and all of Latin America.

"It's an attack on Latin America by certain European states."

Mr Morales said he could not understand why the countries thought Snowden was travelling with him.

"The United States and almost every European country has intelligence agents all over the world and this man is not a suitcase, an animal or a fly that I can just put in my plane and take with me to Bolivia," he said.

France has admitted it granted Mr Morales's plane access to its airspace but then withdrew it at the last minute.

Edward Snowden has been holed up in an airport transit area since June 23 ( theguardian.co.uk )

Portugal says access was never in doubt but a previously granted request to land had been annulled for technical reasons.

Bolivia complains to United Nations

Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorenti, also said the country would file a complaint to UN chief Ban Ki-moon over the "act of aggression".

"The decisions of these countries have violated international law," he said.

"We are already making procedures to denounce this to the UN secretary general."

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 number of other countries on his list were quick to either reject his application or give it a cool reaction, though Venezuela offered Snowden a degree of hope.

Latin American leaders outraged

The diversion has also sparked anger from other Latin American leaders, with Argentine president Cristina Kirchner calling the incident "very humiliating".

In a series of tweets on her official account, the president said, "they are definitely all crazy. The head of state and his plane have total immunity".

Ms Kirchner said she had spoken to Uruguayan president Jose Mujica, who was equally outraged.

Venezuelan foreign minister Elias Jaua said it was "an attack against president Morales's life".

Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa added on Twitter: "We express our solidarity with Evo and the brave Bolivian people. Our America cannot tolerate so much abuse."

Organisation of American States chief Jose Miguel Insulza also demanded an explanation about the incident, which he said endangered the president's life.

"Nothing justifies such a disrespectful act toward a country's highest authority," he said.

US asks Bolivia to extradite Snowden if he arrives

Bolivia's foreign minister David Choquehuanca told Telesur television on Wednesday "the United States sent us a note in which it asks for the extradition of its citizen Edward Snowden should he be in Bolivia".

The minister said he had not yet read the note in its entirety, and that La Paz would "review the entire diplomatic note before deciding".

Mr Choquehuanca said he believed the note was no accident, as "the United States believed Snowden was on the presidential plane" with Mr Morales.

In Washington, the state department said it had asked that Snowden be returned from any country where he might land or attempt to transit.

"We've broadly asked for Mr Snowden to be returned from any country where he may be, where he may land, where he may transit," spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

She noted that the US has an extradition treaty with Bolivia.

A state department official confirmed that Washington still believed Snowden was in the airport in Moscow and had not left for Bolivia.

AFP/Reuters