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Washington - Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's recently approved extradition to Sweden to face rape claims is a matter between Britain and Sweden and "the US is not involved," the State Department said Thursday.
The case, in which a British judge ruled Thursday that an extradition could go ahead, "is a matter between Britain and Sweden," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in a Twitter message.
"Notwithstanding claims to the contrary, the US is not involved."
Former computer hacker Assange says the claims against him, made by two women he met during a seminar organized by the whistleblowing website in August last year, are politically motivated because of the work of WikiLeaks.
Assange rocked the world's diplomatic institutions and infuriated Washington last year when WikiLeaks began releasing more than 250 000 secret diplomatic cables sent by US embassy staff.
His defense team - which immediately said they would appeal the British judge's ruling - has said Assange fears eventual extradition to the United States, and they have argued he could be sent to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility or face the death penalty.
