Britain 'wants way out' of Julian Assange stand-off

Ecuador's foreign minister says the UK wants a solution to the stand-off with Julian Assange, who is holed up in the South American nation's London embassy.

Julian Assange remains in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Source: Press Association

Britain is interested in finding a solution to the stand-off that has led to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange being holed up in Ecuador's London embassy for five years, the South American country's foreign minister says.

In May, Sweden dropped an investigation into rape allegations that led the Australian, 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," Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa told reporters on Thursday.

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

A British court issued an arrest warrant for 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.

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