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British police "cannot just go barging into the embassy", according to the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile.

While criticising the behaviour of Ecuador and Assange, he told the BBC that raiding the embassy under the 1984 legislation would set a dangerous precedent which could leave diplomatic premises around the world- including Britain's- vulnerable.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to be patient," he said, explaining that eventually Assange would have to emerge from the embassy and that, when he did, he would be arrested and sent to Sweden in accordance with the wishes of the UK courts.

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UK Foreign Minister Hague says there is no threat to storm Ecuadorean embassy

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Garzon, who is helping Assange's defence, told Spanish newspaper El Pais that Britain had a legal obligation to allow his client to leave the country once Ecuador granted him diplomatic asylum.

"What the United Kingdom must do is apply the diplomatic obligations of the Refugee Convention and let him leave, giving him safe conduct," the former judge said.

"Otherwise, we will go to the International Court of Justice."

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Yup...keeping him from being able to fly out safely, would turn every embassy in the world into a potential hostage situation...

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Kevin Rawlinson from the Independent has just tweeted this:

@KevinJRawlinson: Sources tell me that, if Julian Assange goes ahead with statement on Sunday on front steps, he will be liable to arrest. #Wikileaks #Assange

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An interesting solution to the Assange standoff from his friend Tariq Ali, who suggests that Ecuador make Assange a citizen, and then appoint him as an attaché to the embassy, therefore giving him diplomatic immunity.

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Extradition expert Anand Doobay has just put paid to Tariq Ali's idea that Assange become a member of embassy staff in order to avoid arrest: to be a diplomat in the UK, you must be accredited by the government.

Doobay said another suggestion that he be smuggled out in a "diplomatic bag" – usually used to carry post and papers – was far fetched. "Ecuador would have to breach the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations," he said.

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No Australian has received more consular support than Julian Assange since legal proceedings commenced against him in 2010, according to Australian foreign minister Bob Carr in Australia's Northern Star.

However, Carr said the Australian government would not be intervening in current events.

"It is a matter between Mr Assange and the governments of Ecuador and the United Kingdom ... And the court case that led to this affair arising in this fashion ... is between Mr Assange and the government of Sweden."

The Australian government would not be making "representations one way or the other," he said.