Assange, the target of a US criminal investigation following WikiLeaks release of masses of classified US diplomatic cables this week, took aim at Clinton in an interview with Time magazine that was conducted from an undisclosed location over the Skype Internet phone service.

Clinton "should resign, if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering US diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the US has signed up," he said.

"Yes, she should resign over that."

On Sunday, his website and a group of media outlets released the first batch of a quarter million US diplomatic cables -- most of which date from between 2007 and February 2010.

The trove revealed secret details and indiscreet asides on some of the world's most tense international issues.

Among them were cables under Clinton's name asking diplomats to gather information that normally would be the work of spies, like obtaining the credit card and frequent flyer numbers of foreign dignitaries.

One cable that went out in July 2009 sought technical details about the communications systems used by top UN officials, including passwords and personal encryption keys.

Another cable signed by Clinton sought "biographic and biometric information on ranking North Korean diplomats" from US diplomats at the US mission to the United Nations in New York.

Clinton has sought to limit the damage from the embarrassing disclosures, telling reporters Monday that the release "was not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community."

Asked about the calls for Clinton to resign, her spokesman Philip Crowley said, "Why would that be?"

"Our diplomats are diplomats. Our diplomats are not intelligence assets," Crowley said during the daily media briefing.

"They can collect information. If they collect information that is useful, we share it across the government as we've been talking about with respect to documents generated by the Department of State," he said.

"Please do not infer from one document that ... this fundamentally changes the role," he added.

When a reporter asked him to assess Assange's character and motives, Crowley replied: "I believe he has been described as an anarchist. His actions seem to substantiate that."

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