Washington: The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden stated on Monday that it was still conducting analysis and could not confirm rumours that China was able to gather real-time data from a spy balloon as it flew over important military sites earlier this year.

According to NBC News, the Chinese balloon was able to transmit data back to Beijing in real time despite efforts by the US government to stop it from doing so.

This information could increase Republican criticism of Biden for not shooting down the balloon until it reached a safe location. One former senior administration official and two current senior U.S. officials were cited by NBC.

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Reporters were informed by the White House and the Pentagon that they were unable to confirm this claim. The Pentagon reported that specialists were still examining the balloon's debris after it was shot down on February 4.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said, "That's something we're analysing right now. I could not confirm that there was real-time transmission from the balloon back to (China) at this time.

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Reuters' request for comment was not immediately answered by either the Chinese Embassy in Washington or the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Beijing.

The U.S. military shot the balloon down off the Atlantic Coast on Biden's orders after it spent a week flying over the United States and Canada, which Beijing claims was a government spy vessel.

According to Reuters, American officials think Beijing was in control of the high-altitude balloon as it passed over the country, occasionally steering it left or right.

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However, at the time, American officials downplayed the balloon's impact on national security, claiming that it had taken precautions to limit its capacity to gather data on sensitive American sites. While acknowledging the balloon's ability to linger longer over American locations than a satellite, it also downplayed the idea that it was significantly more capable of gathering information than Chinese spy satellites.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to Beijing due to the Chinese balloon incident, which further strained ties between Washington and Beijing.

The incident created a commotion in Washington and prompted the American military to scan the skies for additional objects that were not being picked up by radar.

Since the United States announced on February 17 that recovery efforts to collect sensors and other debris from the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina had been successful, the FBI has assumed the lead in analysis.