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| Julian Assange row: Americas ministers to meet | |
| (40 minutes later) | |
| Foreign ministers from across the American continent will meet next Friday to discuss the impasse between the UK and Ecuador over Julian Assange. | Foreign ministers from across the American continent will meet next Friday to discuss the impasse between the UK and Ecuador over Julian Assange. |
| Ecuador has granted political asylum to the Wikileaks founder who took refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London in June. | Ecuador has granted political asylum to the Wikileaks founder who took refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London in June. |
| He faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies. | He faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies. |
| Twenty-three members of the OAS (Organization of American States) voted to have the meeting in Washington DC. The US was one of three to oppose it. | Twenty-three members of the OAS (Organization of American States) voted to have the meeting in Washington DC. The US was one of three to oppose it. |
| On Thursday, Ecuador announced it had granted Mr Assange asylum but the UK has said it will not allow him safe passage out of the country. | |
| The South American country has said Mr Assange's human rights could be violated if he is sent to Sweden to be questioned over allegations that he sexually assaulted two ex-Wikileaks volunteers in Stockholm in 2010. | |
| Australian Mr Assange, 41 - whose Wikileaks website has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables embarrassing countries including the US - fears he would then be passed on to authorities there. | |
| At emergency talks held by the OAS in Washington, US envoy Carmen Lomellin said a meeting of foreign ministers "would be unhelpful and harmful to the OAS' reputation as an institution". | |
| She said the US - which was joined in a no vote by Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago - did not "recognise the concept of diplomatic asylum as a matter of international law". | |
| Britain's permanent observer to the OAS, Philip Barton, said the UK would continue to work with Ecuador "to bring this matter to an amicable and successful conclusion". | |
| The UK Foreign Office has said it will follow its obligations, under the Extradition Act, to arrest Mr Assange if he leaves the embassy. |