Wikieaks- Profile: Julian Assange

The Australian former computer programmer and hacker, 39, founded the site in 2006 and has lived in several countries.

Sweden last week issued an international warrant for his arrest over rape allegations.

His lawyers say the claims are "false and without basis" and they will be appealing to the Swedish supreme court. An initial inquiry was dropped by the chief prosecutor within days, but has recently been reopened.

He is often on the move, running Wikileaks from temporary, shifting locations.

He was born in Townsville, Queensland, northern Australia, in 1971, and first ran into trouble with the authorities over his online activities in 1995 when he pled guilty to hacking activities. Eleven years later, he began Wikileaks with a group of like-minded people, creating a web-based "dead-letterbox" for would-be leakers.

It hit the headlines in April, when it released video taken from a US helicopter showing the killings of least 12 people in Iraq in 2007. The images caused worldwide shock.

Mr Assange was thrust into the spotlight to defend the video, and again during the controversial release of classified US military documents on the Afghan and Iraq wars in July and October.

Wikileaks has established a reputation for publishing sensitive material from governments and other high-profile organisations. Its site now claims to host more than one million documents.

Anyone can submit to Wikileaks anonymously, but a team of reviewers decide what is published. It claims to be funded by "human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public".

Afghan President Hamid Karzai blasted the site for the "shocking," "irresponsible" release of Afghan informers' identities in July.

Wikileaks has also announced plans to make public classified documents about Russia, which may provoke the ire of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.