MOSCOW, July 24: US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden failed to emerge on Wednesday from his month-long stay in a Moscow airport despite expectations, with his lawyer saying he had not yet received permission to enter Russia.

Hordes of media descended on Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport after reports that Snowden, who has applied for asylum in Russia, had received the document allowing him to leave the airport's transit zone and formally cross the Russian border.

But pro-Kremlin lawyer Anatoly Kucherena, who has been helping the American with his asylum request and met Snowden on Wednesday, appeared before the press without the world's most famous fugitive.

“As of today, this document (allowing him to leave) has not yet been given (to him),” Kucherena told reporters.

The confusion comes at a sensitive time for Moscow's relations with Washington, which wants to prosecute the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor on espionage charges for revealing a vast spying programme.

Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to repeat US demands to extradite Snowden, a spokeswoman said.

“He reiterated our belief that Mr Snowden needs to be returned to the United States where he will face a fair trial,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

“Any move that would allow him to leave the airport would be deeply disappointing.” The White House for its part said it wanted “clarity” on Snowden's status.Concerns have emerged the issue could derail a bilateral summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Barack Obama in Moscow in early September.

Snowden applied last week for temporary asylum in Russia, and he was set this week to receive a document allowing him to formally cross the border while his asylum request was being processed.

Earlier in the day, all three Russian news agencies had said Snowden was set to receive a document that would allow him to leave the transit zone where he has been marooned since arriving from Hong Kong on June 23.

There was no explanation for why the plan appeared to have been thwarted at the last minute.

Explaining the long-drawn-out legal process, Snowden's lawyer said the case was “the first such situation in Russia”.

“No one has refused Edward anything but unfortunately the situation that has developed is really not standard for Russia,” said Kucherena.

“You need to take into consideration our bureaucracy,” he said, adding that the state migration service had confirmed to him that the documents were “under consideration”.

“He is here, he lives here. He is here at the transit zone,” he said, adding that the question of when Snowden would leave the airport was so far “undecided”.

I bought him “Crime and Punishment”.

Breaking his silence for the first time since arriving from Hong Kong, Snowden on July 12 summoned several rights activists and Kremlin-friendly lawyers to the airport, telling them he would apply for asylum in Russia and asking them to petition Putin on his behalf. The Kremlin has sought to keep Snowden's case at arm's length, but observers said the activists' meeting at the state-controlled airport would not been possible without government involvement.

Kucherena said Wednesday he had brought Snowden jeans, shirts and T-shirts as well as several books by Russian classic writers Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekhov.

“I bought him Dostoyevsky's 'Crime and Punishment',” he said in televised remarks.—AFP