WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - The White House said on Tuesday that former US spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, who applied for temporary asylum in Russia on Tuesday, should be expelled and returned to the United States to face trial on espionage charges.

"He is not a human rights activist, he is not a dissident. He is accused of leaking classified information," White House spokesman Jay Carney said of Snowden.

Snowden applied for temporary asylum in Russia on Tuesday after spending three weeks in limbo at a Moscow airport.