Wikileaks founder Julian Assange placed on Interpol wanted list

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been placed on Interpol's wanted list over rape allegations made against him in Sweden.

The 39-year-old Australian's whereabouts are unknown, but he is a frequent visitor to Britain and has held several high-profile press conferences in London this year.

Mr Assange is wanted by Swedish prosecutors on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion. He denies the allegations.

He is under intense scrutiny after WikiLeaks began releasing a selection of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables passed to the whistle-blowing website.

The allegations against Mr Assange surfaced in August when two women in Sweden went to police with complaints they had been sexually assaulted.

The Swedish authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest last month.

Interpol, the international police co-operation agency, posted a "red notice" on its website yesterday stating that Mr Assange was wanted for sex crimes by the public prosecutor in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Anyone with information about him is asked to contact their national or local police.

Interpol's red notices allow international arrest warrants to be circulated to police forces worldwide.

If Mr Assange is held in the UK, he will face proceedings to extradite him to Sweden at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court in central London.

Scotland Yard, which handles most British extradition cases, said it was not prepared to discuss the matter.

There is a UK connection to the leaks of the diplomatic cables, which have proved deeply embarrassing for Washington and its allies around the world.

US Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, 23, who is accused of passing classified information to WikilLeaks, lived in Wales for about four years as a teenager.

He grew up in Oklahoma in the US but moved to live with his mother in Wales when his parents split up in his early teens and became a pupil at Tasker Milward secondary school in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire.

Manning, who was serving at a remote military base in Iraq, was charged by the US Army in July with mishandling and leaking classified data and putting American national security at risk.

He has not been charged over the release of the US diplomatic cables, but is suspected to be the source of the latest leaks.