Sydney, Mar 5 : WikiLeaks still holds classified United States government documents that it is yet to publish, the founder of the whistle blowing website, Julian Assange, has confirmed.

However, the website will not release this material during the court martial of its source, US Army private Bradley Manning.

Assange told Fairfax Media that Manning was `America''s foremost political prisoner and an activist who faces retribution for revealing the truth'.

Manning last Thursday publicly accepted responsibility for providing WikiLeaks with hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic reports.

He said that he did so to spark public debate on US foreign policy and military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to the Age, describing Manning's plea `a very positive development', Assange said that `for the first time the soldier was able to speak about his motivation to reveal truths and stimulate public debate about war.'

Assange said that WikiLeaks had decided not to publish the material at the time for "source-protection reasons" given that the person providing the material appeared to have been connected with the US military''s handling of the incident.

The Australia-born activist declined to elaborate on Manning''s admission that he also sent what he publicly described as "other government documents" to WikiLeaks, the report said. (ANI)