WikiLeaks chief faces new arrest warrant

While the elusive whistleblower laid low, his British lawyer insisted police knew his whereabouts and it emerged that an initial warrant was defective.

The United States meanwhile named an anti-terrorism expert to lead a review of security in the wake of the leaks which have angered its friends and foes.

After the Supreme Court in Stockholm refused to hear an appeal by Assange against the initial warrant over allegations of rape and molestation, Swedish police said they would issue a new one as a result of a procedural error.

"We have to refresh the warrant. It\'s a precedural fault, we agree. The prosecutor Marianne Ny has to write a new one," Tommy Kangasvieri of the Swedish National Criminal Police told AFP.

"The procedure demands that the maximum penalty for all crimes Assange is suspected for is written" in the warrant, he explained. "We described it only for the rape."

While Assange has not been seen in public since WikiLeaks began leaking around 250,000 cables on Sunday, his London-based lawyer Mark Stephens denied he was on the run.

"Scotland Yard know where he is, the security services from a number of countries know where is," Stephens told AFP.

"The (British) police are being slightly foxy in their answers, but they know exactly how to get in touch with him, as do the Swedish prosecutors."

Britain\'s Times newspaper said that Assange was at a location in southeast England although there was no confirmation from Stephens.

After former US vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin said the WikiLeaks team should be treated like a terrorist organisation, a spokesman for the website said Assange feared for his life.

"When you have people calling, for example, for his assassination, it is best to keep a low profile," Kristinn Hrafnsson said in London, after right-wing US websites and pundits called for him to be assassinated.

Assange\'s mother also expressed fear for her son\'s safety.

"I\'m concerned it\'s gotten too big and the forces that he\'s challenging are too big," Christine Assange told the Courier Mail, her local newspaper in Queensland, Australia.

Assange\'s Stockholm-based lawyer Bjoern Hurtig told AFP Thursday he would fight his client\'s extradition to Sweden in the event of his arrest..

The US State Department\'s spokesman described Assange as an "anarchist" as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tried to smoothe feathers ruffled by the leaks as she toured Central Asia.

Some of the most eye-catching of the latest revelations centred on Russia with one memo quoting a Spanish prosecutor describing it as a virtual "mafia state" whose political parties operate "hand in hand" with organised crime.

Jose Gonzalez, who has been investigating Russian organised crime in Spain for a decade, also agreed with poisoned dissident Alexander Litvinenko\'s thesis that Russian intelligence and security services "owned organised crime."

In a separate leaked cable sent shortly after Litvinenko\'s death in London in 2006, US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried questioned whether Russian Prime Minister Putin knew beforehand of the plot to kill the dissident.

In a meeting with a senior French diplomat, Fried asked "whether rogue security elements could operate... without Putin\'s knowledge," given the leader\'s "attention to detail."

The cables have also quoted Defense Secretary Robert Gates as saying "Russian democracy has disappeared" and describing President Dmitry Medvedev as "Robin" to Putin\'s "Batman."

But in an interview with CNN, Putin said Gates was "deeply misled" and warned US officials not to "interfere" in Russia\'s internal politics.

Although relations between Moscow and Washington have thawed in recent months, Putin made clear his annoyance.

"Our country is led by the people of the Russian Federation through the legitimately elected government," he said.

As the leaks piled on embarrassment for his administration, US President Barack Obama named Russell Travers, an anti-terrorism expert, to "lead a comprehensive effort to identify and develop the structural reforms needed in light of the WikiLeaks breach," the White House said.

The State Department has already temporarily suspended Pentagon access to some documents. WikiLeaks is believed to have obtained the cables from Bradley Manning, a disgruntled army intelligence officer.

WikiLeaks was thrown off its Web host Amazon, best known as a book retailer. After several hours, WikiLeaks was again accessible in the United States via a European server.

© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.