Five quick questions: What did Joe Biden say about Julian Assange ...

An off-the-cuff remark by Joe Biden has taken the world by surprise and evoked hopes among the supporters of Julian Assange that the United States may drop criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder.

Mr Biden said the US was "considering" Australia's request to return him home, a comment that comes at the eleventh hour as a British court is trying to examine whether Mr Assange could be extradited to the US.

The Australian parliament passed a motion in February calling for Mr Assange, who is an Australian citizen, to be returned home.

Mr Assange faces 18 US criminal charges over the publication of classified documents in 2010. He has denied the charges, saying he is being persecuted for journalism.

Here are five quick questions about Mr Biden's comments and how we got here in the first place.

Mr Biden was briefly walking outside the White House with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday when a US reporter asked if he had a response to Australia's request to return Mr Assange to Australia.

At first, Mr Biden said he couldn't hear the question, but upon the journalist repeating it, he simply replied: "We're considering it."

The president gave no further details before returning inside with Mr Kishida, but his comments are the strongest indication thus far that the US could possibly abandon Mr Assange's prosecution.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the statement from Mr Biden was "encouraging".

"We have raised on behalf of Mr Assange, Australia's national interest, that enough is enough, that this needs to be brought to a conclusion, and we've raised it at each level of government in every possible way," Mr Albanese told the ABC's News Breakfast on Thursday morning.

When asked whether he believed Mr Biden's statement to be more than a throwaway comment, Mr Albanese said the issue was complex and the responsibility for next steps was on the US Department of Justice.

"There's nothing to be gained by Mr Assange's continued incarceration, in my very strong view, and I've put that as the view of the Australian government," he said.

The US has been pushing for Mr Assange to be extradited from Britain on criminal charges over the leaking of military records, but last month, a British court ruled it would not approve extradition without certain assurances from US officials.

The charges relate to material published on Mr Assange's website WikiLeaks in 2010, some of which detailed war crimes committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The information was given to Mr Assange by whistleblower and former soldier Chelsea Manning.

Two UK High Court justices asked for assurances that Mr Assange would not be disadvantaged in the US legal system due to his nationality, and that he would not be subjected to the death penalty. Lawyers were given three weeks to provide more information.

This week marks five years of incarceration for Mr Assange, 52, in London's Belmarsh Prison. Before that, he spent seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, until he was dragged out and arrested in 2019 for breaching bail conditions.

Mr Biden gave no further detail, so we don't know much yet.

The US Department of Justice declined to comment when the ABC reached out to confirm whether it was considering the matter.

Andrew Wilkie, an independent Tasmanian MP and the co-chair of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group, said the comments offer "some comfort" that the US government was listening to Australia, provided the comments were "considered remarks".

The motion that passed in parliament, calling on Mr Assange's return home, was moved by Mr Wilkie, a former Australian Army intelligence analyst.

"I think those sorts of signals from the Australian parliament, they must resonate in Washington," he said.

"We have a very close bilateral relationship, we are good friends, and I think when they see the Australian government taking such an unambiguous position, finally, I would add, then I'm sure it gets noticed."

The UK High Court is due to receive more information from US lawyers on Mr Assange's extradition case by April 16. If that happens, a second hearing could take place on May 20.

Mr Albanese said the government would continue to engage diplomatically with the US on Mr Assange's case.

Mr Wilkie said he was hopeful that Mr Assange's case could finally be coming to a resolution.

"I do wonder if the US government now finds itself in a bind where it may not be confident to assure Julian that he would enjoy the protection of the US first amendment and the right to free speech," Mr Wilkie said.

"Whether it's the Australian government's actions or the demands of the UK High Court of Justice, I do hope that this is coming to a head and a resolution."