Julian Assange's mother lashes out at US

Julian Assange: The WikiLeaks founder faces extradition to Sweden (PA)

The mother of Julian Assange has accused the British, Swedish and Australian governments of being "sycophants" of the United States over the long-running extradition saga involving her son.

On the day that a group of prominent Assange supporters delivered a letter to the Ecuadorean embassy urging the country's President to offer the WikiLeaks founder political asylum, Christine Assange said her son was "buoyed" by the backing he has received.

The film-makers Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, and the philosopher Noam Chomsky, were among the signatories of the letter, which said: "We believe Mr Assange has good reason to fear extradition to Sweden, as there is a strong likelihood that once in Sweden, he would be imprisoned, and then likely extradited to the United States."

Mr Assange faces extradition to Sweden on sexual-assault allegations. His mother said yesterday that the case against him there "coincided" with the release by WikiLeaks of secret US documents and claimed: "The whole exercise has been set up to smear and silence the truth and those countries with their snouts in the trough with America have fallen into line. Ecuador, whose snout isn't in the trough, has not fallen into line."

Anna Alban, the Ecudorean ambassador to Britain, left London for talks over Mr Assange's asylum bid at the weekend. She plans to meet the President Rafael Correa in Quito to personally brief him.