Liberal MPs support calls for Australian government to seek Julian Assange?s return

Two Liberal MP have backed calls for the Australian government to seek Julian Assange's return to Australia "as quickly as possible", after Barnaby Joyce said the US extradition request was unfair.

Liberal backbenchers Jason Falinski and Bridget Archer called for diplomatic action to secure the Wikileaks co-founder's return to his home country after the deputy prime minister said it was unfair that the US wanted to extradite Assange to face prosecution over actions allegedly not committed inside the US.

But Falinski also cautioned against megaphone diplomacy over the case, saying it "requires a level of subtlety to get the best possible deal we can for one of our citizens".

Joyce is the most prominent member of the government to speak out against the US government's efforts to try Assange in the US in connection with WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents about the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as diplomatic cables.

In an op-ed in the Nine newspapers on Tuesday, Joyce, the Nationals leader, argued the UK "should try him there for any crime he is alleged to have committed on British soil or send him back to Australia, where he is a citizen".

The high court in London ruled last week that Assange could be extradited to the US. Assange's legal team have vowed to appeal.

It also prompted warnings from press freedom and rights groups that the prosecution of a publisher under the US Espionage Act sets "a dangerous precedent".