London: WikiLeaks hopes to enlist as many as 60 news organisations from around the world in a bid to help speed the publication of its massive trove of secret US diplomatic memos, the site's founder says.
Julian Assange told The Associated Press that he was making an effort to reach beyond the major newspapers - such as The New York Times and The Guardian - that worked with him on earlier releases, saying that he already has about 20 media partners, and could triple that number within the next three months.
"We're striving for maximum impact for the material," Assange said in a telephone interview, in which he laid out his media strategy.
WikiLeaks has published 2,658 cables to its website - just over 1 per cent of the 251,287 State Department cables it claims to have in reserve.
Assange said that The Times, The Guardian, Spain's El Pais, France's Le Monde and Germany's Der Spiegel have yet to go through all of the cables, although he didn't say how many of the files remained unread.
WikiLeaks has been accused by senior US officials of reckless disregard in the way it publishes documents, but Assange said - with a few exceptions - he was so far satisfied with the process.
The 39-year old Australian, who is currently staying at a supporter's country home in eastern England, is also fighting attempts to extradite him to Sweden on sex crimes allegations.
Assange has previously expressed frustration with the slow pace of the release of the secret diplomatic cables, and said releasing country-specific files to selected local media would serve to push them out faster.
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