Snowden says he wants to return to US

Fugitive self-proclaimed spy Edward Snowden said he wants to return home, as he defended his massive leak of US intelligence secrets, saying abuses of constitutional rights left him no choice.

"If I could go anywhere in the world, that place would be home," Snowden said yesterday almost a year to the day since he revealed a stunning US surveillance dragnet mining data from phones and Internet companies around the world, including Europe.

"From day one, I said I'm doing this to serve my country. Whether amnesty or clemency is a possibility, that's for the public to decide," he told NBC in his first interview with US television since the scandal broke in early June last year.

And he sought to defend himself against charges led by the US administration that he is a hacker and a traitor who endangered lives by revealing the extent of the NSA spying program through the British daily The Guardian.

Secretary of State John Kerry had said the 30-year-old former CIA employee should "man up" and return to face trial.