He was in a London jail

Assange's UK lawyer says half of bail cash raised

A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his backers had raised around half of the 200,000 pounds ($317,400) cash he needs to secure bail after he was accused of sex crimes in Sweden.

Lawyer Mark Stephens said members of the public had asked to contribute to the fund to release the Australian, who has outraged US authorities by orchestrating the release of thousands of secret diplomatic cables.

Assange was in a London jail after Swedish authorities appealed against a judge's decision to free him on bail. Assange denies any wrong-doing. The appeal must be heard by tomorrow evening.

"We have to come up with 200,000 pounds in pound notes and that is difficult to come by," lawyer Mark Stephens told BBC News.

"We've got about half of that right now but of course people will understand that even wealthy people don't keep that kind of money knocking around," he added.