AUSTRALIAN government officials believe that WikiLeaks is ''broken'' and that Julian Assange has no alternative other than to surrender for extradition to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations.

They do not rule out the WikiLeaks publisher's eventual extradition to the United States.

Julian Assange. Credit:Reuters

As Assange nears six months' confinement in Ecuador's London embassy, security and diplomatic sources in Canberra have privately expressed confidence that WikiLeaks is ''effectively moribund''.

It is thought that the transparency group's dwindling financial support will ''sooner or later dry up'' leaving Assange ''irrelevant and with little alternative other than to leave Ecuador's embassy''.