The anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks has released its full archive of more than 250,000 U.S. State Department cables — many of them uncensored.

The State Department says the release could jeopardize the lives of sensitive sources, including opposition figures.

WikiLeaks staff members could not be reached Friday for comment. But WikiLeaks said this week it decided to release the cables because a journalist for Britain's Guardian newspaper revealed the password to unlock the entire unredacted archive in a recent book.

A Guardian spokesman denied any wrongdoing by the paper.

In a statement published Friday on the Guardian's website, the British newspaper along with The New York Times, the Spanish daily El Pais and the German newspaper Der Spiegel deplored WikiLeaks' decision to publish the cables.

The newly-released documents included tens of thousands of cables from countries with which the United States has difficult relationships — including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Venezuela. Until now, WikiLeaks had released censored versions of U.S. diplomatic cables, as well as confidential material on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In Washington, the State Department said WikiLeaks informed it of the impending release of the documents, but ignored appeals not to make them public.