Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is seeking political asylum at Ecuador's London embassy, the country's foreign minister has said, according to BBC News.

"Ecuador is studying and analyzing the request," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters in Quito.

Last week the UK's Supreme Court dismissed Assange's bid to reopen an appeal against extradition to Sweden over alleged sex crimes he denies.

The Foreign Office says it will work with Ecuador to resolve the situation.

Assange could still take his case against extradition to the ECHR and has until June 28 to make the move, or extradition proceedings will begin.

Swedish prosecutors want to question him over allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two female former Wikileaks volunteers in mid-2010 but have not filed any charges.

Assange, whose Wikileaks website has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables that embarrassed several governments and international businesses, claims the sex was consensual.

In a statement, Ecuador's embassy said he had arrived there on Tuesday afternoon to seek asylum. "As a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights, with an obligation to review all applications for asylum, we have immediately passed his application on to the relevant department in Quito," it said.

"While the department assesses Mr Assange's application, Mr Assange will remain at the embassy, under the protection of the Ecuadorean government."

It said the decision to consider the bid for asylum "should in no way be interpreted as the government of Ecuador interfering in the judicial processes of either the United Kingdom or Sweden."

But Swedish authorities have said the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) would intervene if Assange was to face the prospect of "inhuman or degrading treatment or an unfair trial" in the U.S.