A document agreed at the Union of South American Nations meeting in
Ecuador said it supported the country "in the face of the threat" to
its London embassy, where he has taken refuge.
The UK has said it could
potentially lift the embassy's diplomatic status.
Mr Assange faces extradition
to Sweden over sexual assault claims he denies.
Ecuador's President Rafael
Correa has suggested Mr Assange could co-operate with Sweden if assurances are
given that there would be no extradition to a third country.
Supporters of Mr Assange - who
on Sunday urged the US to end its "witch-hunt" against the Wikileaks
site - claim he could face persecution and even the death penalty if sent
there.
'Explicit threat'
After Ecuador's Foreign
Minister Ricardo Patino finished reading the final declaration from the Union
of South American Nations (Unasur) summit, he joined hands with his fellow
foreign ministers and raised them aloft.
The BBC's Will Grant said it
was a a symbolic but important show of unity in a region which considers the UK
government's approach over Mr Assange to have been colonialist and threatening.
Ecuador has described a letter
from the British government drawing attention to the Diplomatic and Consular
Premises Act 1987 as "intolerable" and an "explicit
threat".
Mr Assange called on the US to
stop its "war on whistle-blowers"
The act could allow the UK to
lift the diplomatic status of Ecuador's embassy in London to allow police to
enter the building to arrest Mr Assange for breaching his bail terms.
Mr Assange has been at the
embassy since 19 June. Five days earlier, the UK's Supreme Court dismissed his
bid to reopen an appeal against his extradition to Sweden.
He had been on bail while the
case was being considered and, after the Supreme Court result, was given a
further two-week grace period.
It is an established
international convention that local police and security forces are not
permitted to enter an embassy, unless they have the express permission of the
ambassador.
That principle was backed by
the ministers at the Unasur summit. In their final document, they agreed on a
series of general principles, including as "the inviolability of local
diplomatic missions and consular offices".
'War on whistle-blowers'
Our correspondent said that -
in the context of the UK's perceived heavy-handed approach to the recent
question of Argentina's renewed claim over the Falkland Islands - the British
government's reputation in South America was undoubtedly being affected by this
stand-off.
But the last point of
agreement in the Unasur document called for calm, urging the parties involved
to "continue the dialogue and negotiation to find a mutually acceptable
solution".
On Sunday, Mr Assange, 41,
used his first public statement since entering the embassy - delivered from a
balcony - to call on the US to stop its "war on whistle-blowers".
The US is carrying out an
investigation into Wikileaks, which has published a mass of leaked diplomatic
cables, embarrassing several governments and international businesses.
In 2010, two female
ex-Wikileaks volunteers 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.
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