Bolivian president's plane was rerouted to Austria because of suspicions that Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive former security contractor who is desperate to find asylum, was aboard.

The president suggested during a visit to Moscow that he might be happy to host Mr. Snowden. According to Peter Kleemann, a spokesman for the airport, the plane spent 13 hours overnight tarmac at the Vienna airport. The plane took off at 11:30 A. M. on Wednesday.

According to reports of the Austrian media, the plane was scheduled for Bolivia. However, it was later on planned to make a stopover in the Canary Islands.

Bolivian officials insisted that Mr. Snowden was not in the plane. They blamed France and Portugal to act under American pressure to rescind permission for President Evo Morales's plane to travel on the way back to Bolivia. The permission was granted to land the plane in Vienna as it was low on fuel.

According to the Reuters report, Bolivia's ambassador to the United Nations, Sacha Llorentty Soliz, said that the order to divert the plane came from the U. S. He said this in Geneva on Tuesday.

Foreign minister of Bolivia, David Choquehuanca, said, "they say it was due to technical issues, but after getting explanations from some authorities we found that there appeared to be some unfounded suspicions that Mr. Snowden was on the plane".