WikiLeaks running out of money

WHISTLEBLOWING website WikiLeaks claims it's running out of money, saying it has only 100,000 euros ($A119,968) left for 2012.

That money will be depleted in a few months if it does not get any further donations, according to the organisation.

The group needs 1 million euros immediately, it said.

Donations are the most important source of income for WikiLeaks - these were collected though Germany's Wau-Holland-Foundation.

WikiLeaks criticised credit card companies Visa and MasterCard for undermining the organisation by stopping to forward donations in 2010.

But it WikiLeaks says it has found a way to get around the banking blockade that dramatically cut its donations over the last 18 months.

"After almost two years of fighting an unlawful banking blockade by US financial giants VISA and MasterCard, WikiLeaks has announced it is back open for donations," the website said in a statement.

It aims to use Carte Bleue, a French affiliate of Visa, to beat the blockade and raise a million euros ($1.2 million), which it says it needs immediately if the website set up by Australian Julian Assange is to continue operating.

"VISA and MasterCard are contractually barred from directly cutting off merchants through the Carte Bleue system," the website said.


"WikiLeaks advises all global supporters to make use of this avenue immediately before VISA/MasterCard attempts to shut it down."

Visa and MasterCard banned payments to WikiLeaks in December 2010 along with other money transfer companies including PayPal and Western Union, forcing the website to drastically scale back its publication of secret documents.

The blockade was introduced when WikiLeaks began publishing 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables, embarrassing Washington and governments around the world.

The website said it had cut off more than 95 per cent of its donations.

WikiLeaks claims the blockade has cost it more than $20 million and left it covering just 21 per cent of its operating costs for 2011.