Ecuador foreign minister says UK wants a solution to Assange standoff

Britain is interested in finding a solution to the standoff that has led to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being holed up in Ecuador's London embassy for five years, the foreign minister of the South American country said on Thursday.

In May, Sweden dropped an investigation into rape allegations that led Assange, 45, to seek asylum in the embassy in 2012, but British police said he would still be arrested if he left the building.

"The United Kingdom wants a way out, but evidently that is in the hands of the UK justice system, they have their procedures, their ways," the minister, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, told reporters.

"This opening has been there, and we are working on it."

A British court issued an arrest warrant for Mr Assange when he failed to surrender to the court on June 29, 2012, and the Metropolitan Police Service is compelled to execute that warrant, the London police said in May.

Mr Assange, who denies the rape allegations, fears being handed over to the United States to face prosecution over WikiLeaks' publication of thousands of classified military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks in US history.

Mr Assange's lawyer accused Britain on Thursday of breaking international law by denying him safe passage out of the country if he leaves Ecuador's embassy in London.

"Britain is... violating all the norms of international law, human rights and humanitarian law," said Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish ex-judge who leads Mr Assange's defence team.

He spoke in the Ecuadoran capital at an event marking the fifth anniversary since Mr Assange sought asylum in the embassy to avoid arrest on Swedish rape charges.

While British police have said they would still arrest him if he tried to leave the embassy, prosecutors have not revealed whether they have received a US request to extradite him.

"It is a scheme to justify waiting until the United States formally bring charges," Mr Garzon said.

He said his team would take the case to the UN committee on torture and other UN bodies.