Ecuador to decide on Assange asylum 'this week'

Rafael Correa, Ecuador's president, has said he expects to respond to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's application for political asylum some time this week.

Assange, 41, took refuge at Ecuador's London embassy in June to avoid extradition to Sweden over rape and assault claims, which he denies.

The Wikileaks founder faces arrest for breaching the terms of his bail if he leaves the embassy.

But under international diplomatic arrangements, the police cannot enter to arrest him.

"We expect to have a meeting on Wednesday [with Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino] and I hope to make an announcement before the end of the week," the Ecuadorian leftist leader said in an interview with public broadcaster ECTV late on Monday.

Correa added "We have to look at the possibility that he may be extradited to the United States, that there may be a secret court there, that he may face the death penalty."

Assange, who is Australian, enraged Washington in 2010 when Wikileaks released thousands of confidential US diplomatic cables.

Swedish prosecutors want to question him over the sexual assault allegations.

Assange has said he fears if he is extradited he may later be sent to the US to face espionage charges, which could carry the death penalty. However, this argument was dismissed by prosecutors at his extradition hearing who said Sweden provided "protection against that sort of threat and violation".

Neither the US nor Swedish authorities have charged Assange with anything. Swedish prosecutors want to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two Wikileaks supporters in 2010. Assange says he had consensual sex with the women.

Correa said that he sympathises with Assange but also feels respect for the British legal system and for international law. He said his government has already gathered enough information to take a responsible decision.

Baltasar Garzon, Assange's mother and a former Spanish judge, recently travelled to Ecuador to argue in favour of granting him asylum.

Correa has often been at odds with Washington and offered Assange asylum in 2010.

He has said the mere possibility that Assange could face capital punishment in the US could be reason enough for his government to grant the activist's asylum request.

Even if Ecuador decides to grant Assange political asylum, it remains to be seen if British authorities would allow him to leave the country. In the absence of a safe conduct agreement between Quito and London, he could stay on embassy grounds indefinitely.