The British Supreme Court on Friday decided to hear an appeal by Wikileaks founder Julian Assange against his extradition to Sweden.

Britain's highest court granted permission for Assange to appeal against his extradition to Sweden, where he faces sex crime allegations.

The supreme court said it would hear the appeal because the WikiLeaks founder's case raised a question on extradition law "of general public importance."

The appeal will be heard by a panel of seven of the 12 supreme court justices "given the great public importance of the issue raised, which is whether a prosecutor is a judicial authority," a supreme court spokesman said.

"The supreme court has granted permission to appeal and a hearing has been scheduled for two days, beginning on February 1, 2012," he added.

The 40-year-old Australian who runs the wikileaks website which has angered the U.S. authorities by publishing millions of secret diplomatic cables on the Internet, has been fighting a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by authorities in Sweden for a year.

The Swedish authorities want to question Assange about an allegation of rape raised by one woman, and of sexual coercion by a second woman, which the two women claim happened on his visit to the Scandinavian country in 2010.

Assange went into hiding in Europe fearing that his return to Sweden would lead eventually to his extradition to the United States to face the anger of the authorities over his publishing of the diplomatic cables.

He surrendered to police in London at the end of 2010, and was initially held in prison. After a series of court appearances Assange was granted bail, on strict conditions including a curfew and his agreement to live in a fixed place.

Throughout 2011 he has fought a high-profile and expensive battle through successively higher courts to avoid extradition, and has lost at each stage until an English High Court earlier this month permitted him to ask the country's supreme court to examine his bid.

The supreme court Friday decided to hear Assange's case though it is under no obligation to do so.