Julian Assange charged by US authorities: WikiLeaks

Whistleblower website WikiLeaks said today that the US government has charged Julian Assange although it did not specify the nature of the indictment.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, 47, was responsible for dumping huge tranche of classified US military document in 2010. 

Assange has been holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London after Sweden sought his arrest for rape charges, although the rape charges were later dropped the Wikileaks founder fears he would be extradited to the US if he walks out of the embassy in London.

Wikileaks said prosecutors had revealed the existence of the sealed indictment inadvertently in a court filing in an unrelated case.

Ahead of the revelation, Ecuador had on Wednesday said it had received no extradition request for Julian Assange.

"We have told Mr Assange: 'Up to now, as far as we know, there is no extradition request from any country,'" Foreign Minister Jose Valencia told a local radio channel as speculation has grown in recent months on a possible extradition request from the US.

Assange lawyer Carlos Poveda had said last month that  Assange was prepared to surrender to British police if he receives assurances he will not be extradited.

"What England asks of him is to appear before the British courts to answer for having broken the conditions of his provisional release," the foreign minister said.

"We do not see the British changing their point of view, they continue to insist that he appear before the courts and that they will not give him safe passage to another country," Valencia added.