We changed Kenya’s 2007 election results, boasts WikiLeaks founder

Keller has also indicated that the Times asked Obama administration officials to review some of the documents and to suggest excisions. The Times agreed to some of the officials’ recommendations but not to others, Keller wrote in a note to readers on the day the paper began reporting on what WikiLeaks refers to as “Cablegate.”

The release so far of only a tiny portion of the leaked material is causing acute embarrassment to the United States.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spent parts of the past few days apologising to the leaders of key countries for unflattering assessments in the documents beginning to be disclosed.

“Last Friday, she talked to China, Germany, France, the UK Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said on Thursday. “On Saturday, she talked to Canada. On Sunday, she talked to China again.”

US officials have also apologised to the Kenyan government for comments by American diplomats that have yet to be made public.

Some countries now appear disinclined to hold candid conversations with US officials, Crowley added. “We anticipate that for a period of time, some government officials that have talked to us freely in the past may be more reluctant,” he told reporters.

A few commentators are suggesting, however, that the cables so far indicate general convergence between stated US policy and what American diplomats say privately. There have yet to be any truly shocking revelations from “Cablegate,” these analysts maintain.

In the case of Kenya, for instance, Der Spiegel reported last week that the cables depict the country as “a swamp of flourishing corruption.” The German weekly added that “almost every single sentence in the embassy reports speaks with disdain of the government of President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga.”