LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released on bail on Thursday - confined to a supporter's 243-hectare estate but free to get back to work spilling US government secrets on his website as he fights Sweden's attempt to extradite him on allegations of rape and molestation.

The silver-haired Australian, who surrendered to British police on Dec 7, will have to observe a curfew, wear an electronic tag and report to police in person every day.

But there are no restrictions on his Internet use, even as US authorities consider charges related to thousands of leaked diplomatic cables and other secret documents WikiLeaks has released. The site has released just 1,621 of the more than 250,000 State Department documents it claims to possess, many of them containing critical or embarrassing US assessments of foreign nations and their leaders.