LONDON (Reuters) - Britain told Ecuador on Thursday that giving Julian Assange asylum would not change anything and that it was too early to say whether it would revoke the diplomatic status of Quito's embassy to allow the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder.

"It is too early to say when or if Britain will revoke the Ecuadorean embassy's diplomatic status," a Foreign Office spokesman said by telephone.

"Giving asylum doesn't fundamentally change anything," the spokesman said, adding that Britain had a legal duty to extradite Assange to Sweden where he is wanted to stand trial for rape.

(Reporting by Mohammed Abbas Editing by Maria Golovnina)