Edward Snowden seeking asylum in Ecuador

Fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden is expected to try to fly to Cuba on Monday while he waits to hear if Ecuador will grant him asylum.

An aircraft carrying Snowden landed in Moscow on Sunday from Hong Kong after the Chinese territory allowed him to leave despite requests from Washington that he be arrested.

The White House said it expected the Russian government to send Snowden back to the United States. It had also lodged "strong objections" to Hong Kong and China over the decision to allow Snowden, who exposed secret U.S. government surveillance programmes, to flee.

"We expect the Russian Government to look at all options available to expel Mr. Snowden back to the U.S. to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged," said Caitlin Hayden, spokeswoman for the National Security Council.

Obama had been trying to reset ties with Russia and build a partnership with China, but the leaders of both countries were willing to snub the American president in a month when each had held talks with Obama.

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, on a trip to the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, said Snowden had sought asylum in his country. He declined to say what the Ecuadorean government would do, but added the request would be analysed with a "lot of responsibility".

China Foreign Ministry expressed "grave concern" over Snowden's allegations that the United States had hacked into computers in China, saying it had taken up the issue with Washington.

The statement came after Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper quoted Snowden as offering new details about U.S. surveillance activities.

These included accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile phone firms and the targeting of China's elite Tsinghua University, the alma mater of many of China's top leaders including President Xi Jinping.