Swedish prosecutors on Friday offered to go to London to question Julian Assange over rape allegations that have driven the controversial WikiLeaks founder to hole up in the Ecuadorean embassy in the British capital to avoid arrest and extradition.

Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange in 2010 over accusations by two women of rape and molestation.

But the 43-year-old has refused to return to Sweden to refute the charges, fearing that Stockholm would extradite him to the US to be tried for his role in WikiLeaks' publication of classified US diplomatic, military and intelligence documents.