WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder julian assange stands by his offer to go to the US now that Chelsea Manning is being released, he told a press conference.

Speaking from the Ecuadorian embassy in London via social media, he signalled there would be 'many discussions' on his future before Manning leaves prison in May.

He welcomed Barack Obama's decision to free the former soldier jailed for handing over classified documents to the anti-secrecy organisation.

The outgoing US president used his final hours in the White House to allow Manning to go free nearly 30 years early.

The transgender former intelligence analyst, born Bradley Manning, said she had passed on government and military documents to raise awareness about the impact of war.

Mr Assange, who has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy since the summer of 2012 for fear of being extradited to the US, praised campaigners for their role in the decision.

He was interviewed in the embassy in November in the presence of prosecutors from Sweden, where he faces a sex allegation.

Assange denies the claims, but insists he faces extradition to the United States for questioning over the activities of WikiLeaks if he leaves the embassy.

Manning was convicted in 2013 of violating the Espionage Act and other crimes for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents while working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

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The transgender former intelligence analyst, born Bradley Manning (left) said she had passed on government and military documents to raise awareness about the impact of war (Chelsea Manning, right)

Assange welcomed Barack Obama's decision to free the former soldier jailed for handing over classified documents to the anti-secrecy organisation

She declared as transgender after being sentenced to 35 years in prison. Manning had served more than six years before Mr Obama commuted her sentence on Tuesday, with a release date set for May.

President Obama said: 'The notion that the average person who was thinking about disclosing vital, classified information would think that it goes unpunished, I don't think would get that impression from the sentence that Chelsea Manning has served.'

Mr Obama said he saw no contradiction in granting clemency to Manning even as he warns about Russia's hacking of the US presidential campaign, in which stolen emails were released publicly by WikiLeaks.

He said he was not motivated by WikiLeak's earlier pledge on Twitter that founder Assange would agree to extradition to the US if Mr Obama commuted Manning's sentence.

'I don't pay much attention to Mr Assange's tweets, so that wasn't a consideration,' the president said.

Mr Obama's comments came as he prepares to exit the presidency after eight years marked by major victories on healthcare, the economy and climate change, along with disappointments over his inability to achieve his goals on immigration, gun control and closing the Guantanamo Bay prison.