Several WikiLeaks members abandoned the site following perceived autocratic behaviour by Mr Assange. They said he failed to consult them on many decisions and put himself front and centre of everything WikiLeaks did. Some members were also concerned that the Swedish rape allegations against Mr Assange were damaging the organisation's reputation. Dagens Nyheter reported that insiders were sabotaging the site earlier this year in order to convince Mr Assange to step down. The new site, one member said, would be "democratically governed by all its members, rather than limited to one group or individual". "We broke from WikiLeaks because a few ex-WikiLeaks members have been very unhappy with the way Assange was conducting things," said former WikiLeaks member and key player in the new site, Herbert Snorrason. 'You're not anyone's king or god'

The most high-profile defector is Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who went by the name Daniel Schmitt at WikiLeaks and served as one of its only public faces aside from Mr Assange. Mr Domscheit-Berg resigned from the organisation this year after WikiLeaks released almost 400,000 classified US documents relating to the Iraq war. He, and other WikiLeaks members, felt Mr Assange released the documents too early without taking the time to properly redact names of US collaborators and informants in Iraq. "You are not anyone's king or god," Mr Domscheit-Berg told Mr Assange in an online chat, a transcript of which was obtained and published by Wired.com. "And you're not even fulfilling your role as a leader right now. A leader communicates and cultivates trust in himself. You are doing the exact opposite. You behave like some kind of emperor or slave trader." Mr Assange shot back, saying he was suspending Mr Domscheit-Berg for a month and that if he wanted to appeal, "you will be heard on Tuesday".

Mr Domschelt-Berg instead resigned and will now be a key player in the new site. Got a problem? Piss off Mr Snorrason also left after he challenged Mr Assange's decision to suspend Mr Domscheit-Berg. Mr Assange responded saying: "I am the heart and soul of this organisation, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organiser, financier and all the rest. If you have a problem with me, piss off." Mr Domscheit-Berg is writing a tell-all book on his three years at WikiLeaks, titled Inside WikiLeaks: My Time at the World's Most Dangerous Website. In an interview with German newspaper Der Spiegel Mr Domscheit-Berg criticised WikiLeaks for focusing too much on the US and said the new site would have a far broader focus.

Ben Laurie, a data security expert who advised WikiLeaks before it launched in 2006, said the site had opened a Pandora's box of leaking and, even if it was taken out, the idea would live on. "The concept is not going to die. It's really hard to keep things shut down if they want to stay up," he said. "Look at everything else people would like not to happen online - phishing, spam, porn. It's all still there." World leaders support Assange Meanwhile, Mr Assange remains remanded in custody in Britain pending proceedings to extradite him to Sweden to face sex crime allegations.

Revelations embarrassing to governments all over the world, divined from the hundreds of thousands of US State Department cables leaked by Mr Assange, continue to be published by media organisations. Vladimir Putin has led a growing band of international leaders voicing support for Mr Assange, describing his detention in Britain as "undemocratic". The Russian Prime Minister's broadside came as hackers escalated their cyber war on opponents of the whistleblower website, setting their sights on Amazon.com. The move appeared to be part of a developing tit-for-tat cyber conflict targeting companies in reprisal for withdrawing from doing business with WikiLeaks. Amazon last week booted WikiLeaks off its servers, saying the company had violated its terms of service. Visa, Mastercard and PayPal earlier suffered disruption to their websites in retaliation for their decision to stop accepting payments for the whistleblower.

Loading Dutch police have arrested a 16-year-old who they say admitted to staging attacks on the Visa and Mastercard sites. - with wires