The US Justice Department has unveiled 17 criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, accusing him of unlawfully published the names of classified sources as well as conspiring and assisting ex-Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning in accessing classified information.

The charges, contained in an 18-count indictment announced on Thursday, go far beyond an initial indictment against Assange made public last month that accused him of conspiring with Manning to gain access to a government computer, as part of a 2010 leak by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of US military reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The new indictment says his actions "risked serious harm" to the US.

The 47-year-old is serving a jail sentence in the UK for breaching bail conditions following his eviction from the Ecuadorian Embassy in April. The US is seeking his extradition.

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