London, Oct 25 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Whistleblowing website WikiLeaks is suspending publishing operations in order to concentrate the group's resources on fighting a "blockade" by credit card companies, its founder Julian Assange has announced.

Speaking at a press conference in London Monday, Assange said the banking blockade had eliminated 95 percent of WikiLeaks' revenues.

"If WikiLeaks does not find a way to remove this blockade we will simply not be able to continue by the turn of the new year," he said.

WikiLeaks first encountered financial problems in December 2010 when Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union refused to accept donations for the site.

The website said the blockade was a reaction to its publication of the first of 250,000 leaked US government cables.

World leaders have downplayed the impact of the leak of the confidential US diplomatic cables, but many have questioned the benefit of the project, saying some of the leaks could "threaten lives".