Rio de Janeiro, Sep 12 (IANS): The foreign relations committee of Brazil's House of Representatives has decided to send a delegation to meet former US intelligence employee Edward Snowden who lives in asylum in Russia.

The decision to meet Snowden was unanimously passed by the lawmakers Wednesday, but is yet to be approved by the Russian government or Brazil's foreign ministry, Xinhua reported.

A series of recent revelations of US spying on Brazil's leadership, including the country's president, were based on documents leaked by Snowden before he sought asylum in Russia to evade imprisonment or worse in the US, where he is wanted for stealing sensitive information.

Brazil's lawmakers want to discuss the revelations with the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, whose documents indicated that Brazil was a prime target of Washington's global surveillance programme.

Brazil is particularly sensitive to spying that targets its deep-water oil reserves, as it prepares to open bidding to international companies interested in operating there.