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WikiLeaks is going to publish more than 500,000 Saudi diplomatic documents in to the internet, the transparency website said, a move that echoes its famous release of US State Department cables in late 2010.

"The Saudi Cables lift the lid on an increasingly erratic and secretive dictatorship that has not only celebrated its 100th beheading this year, but which has also become a menace to its neighbours and itself," WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange said in a statement.

The Wikileaks Saudi government documents include extensive correspondence between the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kingdom's embassy in Canberra which reveals continuous Saudi efforts to influence the political and religious opinions within the Australia's Arabic and Islamic communities.

The released documents include the instructions from the Saudi government to its embassy relating to the payment of large subsidies to be made from the Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information to the prominent Arabic newspapers and media organisations in Australia, and reference are made to cheques to the value of $10,000 and $40,000.

By Premji