US not ruling out legal action against WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON: The White House says the US government is not ruling out the possibility of taking legal action against online whistle-blower WikiLeaks.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says the administration is considering several steps following the release of more than a quarter of a million classified State Department documents. He says a criminal investigation is under way into how the documents were made public.

Gibbs says President Barack Obama was briefed on the size and scope of the document leak by national security aides last week. Gibbs says it would be an understatement to say the president was ``not pleased'' to hear that the information would be released.

The weekend release of documents reflecting, in some cases, unflattering assessments of world leaders has caused embarrassment to the administration.