Ecuador, Britain fail to reach deal on Assange

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Britain and Ecuador failed to reach agreement on the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday at a meeting of their foreign ministers here, officials said.

"We see no immediate solution," Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters after meeting with British Foreign Secretary William Hague on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Hague told Patino "that the UK was under an obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden," a spokesman for the British foreign secretary said in a statement. "The concept of 'diplomatic asylum', while well-established in Latin America, did not feature in UK law," he said.

Assange took refuge in the Ecuadoran embassy in London June 19 to avoid extradition to Sweden for questioning in a sexual assault case, and was later granted diplomatic asylum by Quito. Assange, 41, fears Sweden will hand him over to the United States, where he could face prosecution over WikiLeaks' release of a vast cache of leaked Iraq and Afghanistan war reports and diplomatic cables.

The activist's lawyers and supporters say he would not get a fair trial in the United States. "Both ministers agreed that they were committed to the search for a diplomatic solution to Mr Assange's case. They were willing to meet again at this level in due course to continue these exchanges," the British statement said.