Snowden makes asylum request, Venezuela confirms

Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden is shown during a news bulletin at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport. Snowden, who is in the transit area of the airport, has requested asylum from Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro has confirmed. (Sergei Karpukhin/Reueters)

Venezuela's president says that his country has received an asylum request from NSA leaker Edward Snowden.

President Nicolas Maduro had already offered asylum to Snowden, who apparently is holed up in the transit lounge of a Moscow airport. Bolivia and Nicaragua also say they'll grant asylum. Ecuador says it will consider any request.

Maduro says it is perhaps the world's "first collective humanitarian asylum" with various countries saying "Come here!"

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But the United States has cancelled Snowden's passport and it's unclear if he has travel documents he would need to leave Moscow.

Maduro says Snowden "will have to decide when he flies here, if he finally wants to travel here."

He made the comments late Monday in a meeting with Panama's president. The remarks were distributed Tuesday by his office.