RUMOURS that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could soon be leaving the Ecuadorian embassy intensified yesterday after he claimed his legal advisers had told him to.

At a press conference inside the London embassy, flanked by Ecuador’s Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, Mr Assange insisted that he was not giving up his fight against extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on sex offence allegations, including one count of rape.

Ecuador granted him political asylum after he lost appeals his extradition in the British courts.

But Mr Patino said Ecuador was continuing to pursue a deal with British authorities to end the impasse, which marked its second anniversary yesterday.

“There has not been justice for anyone. The situation must come to an end,” he told repor-ters. 

He said that there had been “two lost years” for everyone involved, including the two Swedish women who have brought the charges against Mr Assange.

Mr Patino said he would be trying “over the coming weeks” to set up a meeting with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, saying recent reforms to extradition law “create a better climate for us to try to reach an agreement.”

The Foreign Office told the Star details of any such meeting would only be released as and when it had been agreed.

The WikiLeaks boss maintains he would be willing to face charges if provided with a “diplomatic guarantee” he would not then be transferred to the United States to be prosecuted over WikiLeaks’s release of classified information.