Among a quarter million secret US documents released by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, a total of 3,038 classified cables are from the American embassy in New Delhi.

The details of the cables related to India were not immediately available, mainly because of inaccessibility to the WikiLeaks website, which was experiencing heavy traffic.

But out of the total, 3,038 classified cables are from the US embassy in New Delhi.

A breakdown indicates that as many as 2,278 cables are from the US mission in Kathmandu, 3,325 from Colombo and 2,220 from Islamabad.

These cables are often candid and some time personal assessment of the day to day events, functioning and meetings of US diplomats.

The documents are being published by several media outlets across the globe, despite repeated insistence from the US that it may put at risk many lives.

The 251,287 cables, first acquired by WikiLeaks, were provided to The New York Times by an intermediary on the condition of anonymity, the daily said.

Many are unclassified, and none are marked "top secret," the government's most secure communications status.

But some 11,000 are classified "secret," 9,000 are labelled "noforn," shorthand for material considered too delicate to be shared with any foreign government, and 4,000 are designated both secret and noforn.

Ahead of the leak of the documents, the State Department had reached out to India warning it about the impending release.

"We have reached out to India to warn them about a possible release of documents," State Department Spokesman P J Crowley had said.

The US has termed the leak as illegal and said that this would effect its relationship with its friends and allies.

"These cables could compromise private discussions with foreign governments and opposition leaders, and when the substance of private conversations is printed on the front pages of newspapers across the world, it can deeply impact not only US foreign policy interests, but those of our allies and friends around the world," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.