The disclosure of classified U. S. documents by the whistleblower website Wikileaks is an attack on America's foreign policy interests, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosts a press briefing on the recent classified cables released by Wikileaks at the Department of State in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, Nov. 29, 2010. [Zhang Jun/Xinhua]

"This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests," the top U.S. envoy said at a press briefing at the department. "It is an attack on the international community, the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity."

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Clinton was reacting to the release of some 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables by Wikileaks on Sunday, which shed light on clandestine activities by U.S. diplomats including spying on UN leadership and permanent Security Council representatives of France, China, Britain and Russia. The cables also offer an insight into back-room bargaining, candid view of foreign leaders and frank assessments of nuclear and terrorist threats by the U.S. embassies around the world.

"The United States strongly condemns the illegal disclosure of classified information," Clinton told reporters. "It puts people's lives in danger, threatens our national security and undermines our efforts to work with other countries to solve shared problems. "