Assange not on Carr`s agenda during talks with Swedish FM

Melbourne: Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr has said that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will not be on his agenda when he holds talks with Swedish counterpart next week.

Carr is expected to meet Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt in Canberra next Wednesday. Carr`s spokesman was quoted by Australian Associated Press news agency as saying that two leader will discuss the United Nations Security Council, approaches to the Middle East and Asia Pacific and regional security. "There are no plans to discuss Assange," he said. Assange, who has been holed up in Ecuador`s embassy in London for the past eight months, recently announced his decision to run for election to Australia`s Senate as part of a WikiLeaks Party. He sought and was granted asylum from Ecuador as part of his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden, where authorities want to question him over sex crime allegations. But Britain has refused to grant him safe passage out of the country. Assange fears the US will seek to extradite him from Sweden to face charges relating to his website`s release of thousands of classified US documents. PTI