Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Nick Childs: "The diplomatic temperature has been rising" 
 
 Ecuador has accused the UK of making a "threat" to enter its embassy in London to arrest Wikileaks' Julian Assange. 
 
 Mr Assange took refuge at the embassy in June to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over assault and rape claims, which he denies. 
 
 Ecuador says a decision on his claim for political asylum will come later. 
 
 The UK Foreign Office says it can lift the embassy's diplomatic status to fulfil a "legal obligation" to extradite the 41-year-old. 
 
 In an official note to the Ecuadoreans it said it was "surprised" by media reports that "Ecuador is about to take a decision and proposes to grant asylum to Mr Assange". 
 
 The BBC's Tim Reid, outside the embassy, said Ecuador had accused the UK of "intimidating" behaviour and that it was "surprised and disappointed" by what had gone on. 
 
 In June, the UK's Supreme Court dismissed Mr Assange's bid to reopen his appeal against extradition and gave him a two-week grace period before extradition proceedings could start. 
 
 It was during that fortnight, while on bail, that he sought refuge. 
 
 The Wikileaks website he founded published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables that embarrassed several governments, particularly the US's, in 2010. 
 
 Mr Assange says he fears that if extradited to Sweden, he will then be passed on to the American authorities. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Extradition expert Julian Knowles on the implications of any police raid on Ecuador's embassy 
 
 A number of police officers are outside the Ecuadorean embassy, in Knightsbridge, where some of Mr Assange's supporters have also gathered. 
 
 Three protesters have been arrested outside the embassy after minor scuffles. 
 
 The BBC's Stuart Hughes says some of the demonstrators have been chanting: "Julian Assange, freedom fighter." 
 
 Protests have also been held outside the British embassy in Ecuador's capital. 
 
 Images from Quito showed protesters holding signs saying: "We are sovereign, not colonies" and a union jack being stepped on. 
 
 'Improper' threat 
 
 At a news conference in Quito on Wednesday, Ecuador's Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, said a letter from the UK government had been delivered through a British embassy official. 
 
 "Today we received from the United Kingdom an express threat, in writing, that they might storm our embassy in London if we don't hand over Julian Assange," he said. 
 
 "Ecuador rejects in the most emphatic terms the explicit threat of the British official communication." 
 
 He said such a threat was "improper of a democratic, civilised and rule-abiding country". 
 
 He added: "If the measure announced in the British official communication is enacted, it will be interpreted by Ecuador as an unacceptable, unfriendly and hostile act and as an attempt against our sovereignty. It would force us to respond. 
 
 "We are not a British colony." 
 
 A Foreign Office spokesman said the UK remained "determined" to fulfil its obligation to extradite Mr Assange. 
 
 Analysis It was not a piece of news anyone thought would come from Ecuador - and the style of the announcement came as a great surprise. Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino was visibly angry as he lectured the UK government on its diplomatic obligations for several minutes. The British "threat" to enter its London embassy to capture Julian Assange, however, might accomplish the unthinkable and briefly unite Ecuador's political forces. Critics of President Rafael Correa have accused the government of not properly handling Mr Assange's case but have also deemed the UK position unacceptable. They also fear any violation of Ecuador's sovereignty would strengthen Mr Correa and could turn him into a hero. The question now is whether they will let him fight this battle on his own. 
 
 "Throughout this process we have drawn the Ecuadoreans' attention to relevant provisions of our law, whether, for example, the extensive human rights safeguards in our extradition procedures, or to the legal status of diplomatic premises in the UK," the spokesman said. 
 
 "We are still committed to reaching a mutually acceptable solution." 
 
 The law the UK has informed Ecuador it could use in the case is the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987. 
 
 It allows the UK to revoke the diplomatic status of an embassy on UK soil, which in this case would potentially allow police to enter the building to arrest Mr Assange for breaching the terms of his bail. 
 
 The act was introduced after PC Yvonne Fletcher was shot outside the Libyan Embassy in London in 1984. 
 
 'Legal obligations' 
 
 The Foreign Office note to Ecuador stated: "We very much hope not to get this point [revoking diplomatic status], but if you cannot resolve the issue of Mr Assange's presence on your premises, this route is open to us." 
 
 It also said that it must meet its legal obligations to arrest Mr Assange and extradite him to Sweden. 
 
 The note went on: "We remain committed to working with you amicably to resolve this matter. But we must be absolutely clear this means that should we receive a request for safe passage for Mr Assange, after granting asylum, this would be refused, in line with our legal obligations." 
 
 The Ecuadorean foreign minister told reporters an announcement on Mr Assange's bid for political asylum would be issued on Thursday at 07:00 local time (13:00 BST). 
 
 The BBC's Bridget Kendall said she believed it was "quite likely" that Ecuador would grant Mr Assange asylum because it had reacted strongly to the UK and may not want to be perceived to be buckling under pressure. 
 
 However, he could still be arrested if he left the embassy, she said. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Supporters of Mr Assange have been gathering outside the embassy 
 
 Our correspondent could not recall a precedent in which the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987 had been used in this way. 
 
 And former government lawyer Carl Gardner told BBC Radio 4's Today programme legal advisers would be "urging the most extreme caution". 
 
 In 2010, two female Wikileaks supporters accused Mr Assange, an Australian citizen, of committing sexual offences against them while he was in Stockholm to give a lecture. 
 
 Mr Assange claims the sex was consensual and the allegations are politically motivated. 
 
 In June, judges at the UK's Supreme Court dismissed his final appeal against extradition to Sweden. 
 
 An offer by Ecuador to allow Swedish investigators to interview Mr Assange inside the embassy was rejected. ||||| LONDON -- Ecuador said Thursday it would grant political asylum to Julian Assange, the controversial founder of the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website who has been holed up for nearly two months inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault. 
 
 Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said that Assange's legal and procedural rights had been violated, and that Ecuador accepted his argument that he faced possible political persecution by the United States, which is angry over his release of secret government files. 
 
 "We believe his fears are legitimate," Patino told reporters in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, Thursday morning. 
 
 PHOTOS: Assange granted asylum in Ecuador 
 
 The much-anticipated decision immediately turned Assange's legal fight into a diplomatic standoff between Ecuador and Britain, which says that it is obliged to turn Assange, 41, over to authorities in Sweden, a fellow member of the European Union. 
 
 For Assange himself, the announcement from Quito remains only a symbolic victory for the moment. Britain has refused to grant him safe passage out of the country; rather, police say that Assange is subject to immediate arrest if he sets foot outside the embassy because he breached his bail conditions. 
 
 Assange's supporters gathered outside the embassy before the decision was announced. A few protesters were arrested after scuffles with police, Sky News reported. 
 
 Ecuador's decision comes amid increasing acrimony between London and Quito over the Assange case. On Wednesday, Patino sharply rebuked the British government for what he described as a threat to raid its embassy to arrest Assange. By convention, embassies are considered sovereign territory of the countries they represent. 
 
 Ecuador is not "a British colony," Patino warned. 
 
 Assange, who is an Australian citizen, denies allegations that he sexually assaulted two women in Stockholm in August 2010. He has acknowledged having sex with them on separate occasions but disputes their accusations that coercion or force was involved. 
 
 He and his supporters insist that the allegations are part of a plot to remove him from Britain and ultimately to ship him to the U.S., which Assange says wants to try –- and possibly execute -– him for orchestrating the leak of thousands of classified State Department and Pentagon documents. 
 
 Assange took refuge inside Ecuador's embassy, located in one of London's toniest districts, on June 19, after his legal appeals against being sent to Sweden were virtually exhausted. Earlier that month, Britain's Supreme Court ruled that his extradition could proceed. 
 
 The request for political asylum in a third country was a bizarre twist in a saga that has dragged on since Assange was first arrested in December 2010. Although Assange remained "beyond the reach" of police while inside the embassy, Scotland Yard warned that he faced arrest the moment he stepped outside it for violating his bail conditions, which obligated him to abide by a nightly curfew at a 
 
 designated address. 
 
 The WikiLeaks founder had previously developed some kind of rapport with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa. Assange interviewed Correa on a Kremlin-backed television show called "Russia Today," a sympathetic exchange in which the two men traded gibes about American arrogance. 
 
 Critics have noted the irony of Assange, a free-speech campaigner, appealing for help from a leader who has been accused of mounting a crackdown on journalists in Ecuador. 
 
 ALSO: 
 
 WikiLeaks chief Assange arrested in sex-crime case ||||| Police officers stand on the steps of Ecuador's embassy as an Ecuadorean diplomatic car is seen parked outside in London August 15, 2012. 
 
 QUITO/LONDON Britain on Wednesday warned Ecuador that it could raid its London embassy if Quito does not hand over WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been taking refuge at the mission since mid-June. 
 
 In Quito, the Ecuadorean government said that any such action would be considered a violation of its sovereignty a "hostile and intolerable act." 
 
 "Under British law we can give them a weeks' notice before entering the premises and the embassy will no longer have diplomatic protection," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "But that decision has not yet been taken. We are not going to do this overnight. We want to stress that we want a diplomatically agreeable solution." 
 
 In Quito, the government bristled at the threat and said it would announce its decision on Assange's asylum request on Thursday at 7 a.m. (1200 GMT). 
 
 "We want to be very clear, we're not a British colony. The colonial times are over," Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said in an angry statement after a meeting with President Rafael Correa. 
 
 "The move announced in the official British statement, if it happens, would be interpreted by Ecuador as an unfriendly, hostile and intolerable act, as well as an attack on our sovereignty, which would force us to respond in the strongest diplomatic way," Patino told reporters. 
 
 Ecuador, whose government is part of a left-leaning bloc of nations in South America, called for meetings of regional foreign ministers and the hemispheric Organization of American States to rally support in its complaint against Britain. 
 
 WANTED IN SWEDEN 
 
 The Australian has been in the embassy for eight weeks since losing a legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he has been accused of rape and sexual assault by two WikiLeaks supporters. 
 
 "The UK has a legal obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sexual offences and we remain determined to fulfill this obligation," a Foreign Office spokesman said earlier. 
 
 Swedish prosecutors have not yet charged Assange, but they have moved forward with their investigations and they believe they have a case to take to trial. 
 
 Assange fears Sweden could send him on to the United States, where he believes authorities want to punish him for publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables on WikiLeaks in 2010 in a major embarrassment for Washington. 
 
 Even if he were granted asylum, Assange has little chance of leaving the Ecuadorean embassy in London without being arrested. 
 
 The red-brick embassy building, just outside London's famed Harrods department store, was under tight surveillance late into the night, with three police officers manning the entrance and several others patrolling around the premises of the building. 
 
 There has been speculation he could travel to an airport in a diplomatic car, be smuggled out in a diplomatic bag, or even be appointed an Ecuadorean diplomat to give him immunity. 
 
 But lawyers and diplomats see those scenarios as practically unworkable. 
 
 The Ecuadorean government has said it wants to avoid Assange's extradition to Sweden, but approval of asylum would offer no legal protection in Britain where police will arrest him once they get a chance. 
 
 "The question of asylum is arguably a red herring," said former British government lawyer Carl Gardner. 
 
 Ecuador's leader Correa is a self-declared enemy of "corrupt" media and U.S. "imperialism", and apparently hit it off with Assange during a TV interview the Australian did with him in May. 
 
 Correa joked then with Assange that he had joined "the club of the persecuted". 
 
 Some, though, find Assange's connection with Ecuador odd, given that Correa is labeled a persecutor of the media by journalism freedom groups. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Jose Llangari in Quito; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Sandra Maler)
– Ecuador officially granted asylum to Julian Assange today, reasoning that his human rights might be violated if he were turned over to UK authorities. "We can state that there is a risk that he will be persecuted politically," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said, according to the Guardian. He argued that if Assange were ever to fall into US hands he would not receive a fair trial and could face the death penalty, reports the AP. Patino also harshly rebuked the UK for threatening to raid Ecuador's embassy, which is traditionally considered sovereign territory. Ecuador "is not a British colony," he said, though he did express hope that Ecuador's "friendship with the United Kingdom will remain intact." The UK has insisted that Ecuador's decision is irrelevant; it will still attempt to arrest Assange. "It is too early to say when or if Britain will revoke the Ecuadorean embassy's diplomatic status," a Foreign Office spokesman told Reuters.