Mr Assange, who has not been charged with any offence in Sweden, fears extradition to Stockholm will facilitate his ultimate extradition to the US. He has also expressed concern that a successful appeal against extradition to Sweden will prompt the US to immediately seek his extradition directly from Britain.

Despite extensive redactions, the most recent instalment of Australian diplomatic cables released under freedom of information to The Age, show the US and Australian Governments continued high-level exchanges on WikiLeaks through last year.

The political sensitivity of the discussions is reflected in the "secret" and "exclusive" classification of a number of the cables, indicating a strictly limited distribution within the Australian government.

The embassy in Washington provided Canberra with regular updates, including reporting on the issuing of subpoenas to compel WikiLeaks associates to appear before a grand jury in Virginia and US Justice Department efforts to access Twitter and other internet accounts as "casting the net beyond Assange to see if any intermediaries had been involved in communications between Assange and Manning".

An Australian embassy representative attended the pre-court-martial hearing for private Manning in December. The embassy also obtained "confidences or legal commentary" from private law firms "on aspects surrounding WikiLeaks and/or the positions of Julian Assange and Bradley Manning". An embassy report that month noted that "by virtue of the secret nature of grand jury investigations", details of the investigation "cannot be confirmed on the record legally". Further reporting has been redacted on grounds that its release would damage Australia's diplomatic relations.