No breakthrough on Julian Assange in Britain-Ecuador meeting

Britain and Ecuador have agreed to establish a working group to find a diplomatic solution on the issue of Julia Assange but made no breakthrough, British Foreign Office said on Monday. British Foreign Secretary William Hague and visiting Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino held a bilateral meeting for 45 minutes on Monday morning. The two ministers agreed to keep channels of communication open on how to solve the WikiLeaks founder's situation, but "no substantive progress was made," the Foreign Office said. Hague insisted that any resolution would need to be within the laws of Britain, which means the British police will arrest Assange if he stepped out of the Ecuadorian embassy and deliver him to Sweden. Patino said Ecuador will continue to push Britain to allow Assange to leave the country so he can take political asylum in the South American country. Assange has been taking refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in central London since last June to avoid his extradition to Sweden, and was granted political asylum by Ecuador in August. However, Britain refused to recognize the asylum and denied Assange safe passage out of the country. The 41-year-old Australian claimed that Sweden intends to hand him over to the United States, where he may face espionage charges for leaking thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables and, if convicted, could be given the death penalty.