By Kanishka Singh and Renju Jose
WASHINGTON/SYDNEY (Reuters) -A cross-party delegation of&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;lawmakers&nbsp;that traveled to the United States seeking the&nbsp;release&nbsp;of WikiLeaks founder&nbsp;Julian&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;said they had a productive discussion in&nbsp;Washington&nbsp;with the U.S. Justice Department.
The group of&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;lawmakers&nbsp;urged U.S. officials to drop their attempts to extradite&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;from a British prison to the United States, where he is wanted on charges over WikiLeaks'&nbsp;release&nbsp;of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables.
"We had a fair hearing and we had a productive discussion,"&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said after the meeting.
The delegation included&nbsp;lawmakers&nbsp;from the Labor government, the opposition Liberal and National parties, and the Greens.
Labor Member of Parliament Tony Zappia said&nbsp;Australians believed&nbsp;Assange, an&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;citizen, had been punished enough and that his charges should be dropped.
"Our discussions with the Department of Justice right now and with others in&nbsp;Washington&nbsp;have enabled us to put that view very clearly and very strongly, we've done that," Zappia told reporters.
A handful of&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;supporters gathered outside the Justice Department building where the meeting took place and hailed&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;as a journalist who should be reunited with his family.
Assange's supporters say he has been victimized because he exposed U.S. wrongdoing and potential crimes, including in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.&nbsp;Washington&nbsp;says the&nbsp;release&nbsp;of the secret documents put lives in danger.
Australian&nbsp;Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in May said he was frustrated that a diplomatic solution had not been reached to end&nbsp;Assange's detention, and that he remained concerned about&nbsp;Assange's mental health. Zappia said Albanese might raise the issue when he visits the U.S. next month.
"We think this has gone on too long, and the breadth of political representation on this delegation I think demonstrates that there are a great many people in Australia who would like to see this matter resolved,"&nbsp;Australian&nbsp;Foreign Minister Penny Wong told reporters in New York on Wednesday, where she is attending the United Nations General Assembly.
Support for&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;among U.S. policymakers remains low.
If extradited,&nbsp;Assange&nbsp;faces a sentence of up to 175 years in a maximum-security prison.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in&nbsp;Washington; additional reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney. Editing by Stephen Coates and Michael Perry)

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