WASHINGTON (AFP) - Activist filmmaker Michael Moore said Tuesday he offered 20,000 dollars to help WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange post bail in London, and his own website and servers to help WikiLeaks keep disclosing government secrets.

In a statement posted on thedailybeast.com, Moore said a British court on Monday was presented with "a document from me stating that I have put up 20,000 dollars of my own money to help bail Mr Assange out of jail."

Accused of sex crimes in Sweden, the 39-year-old Australian-born Assange on Tuesday won bail from a London court but must remain in jail after Swedish prosecutors appealed the decision.

Moore, whose anti-establishment documentaries have also irked US government and corporate leaders, questioned the charges brought against Assange.

"All I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please -- never, ever believe the 'official story,'" he said, adding that guilty or innocent, Assange has the right to defend himself.

Moore also offered "the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars."

"Openness, transparency -- these are among the few weapons the citizenry has to protect itself from the powerful and the corrupt... and that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done," Moore said.

Supporting WikiLeaks, he concluded, is "a true act of patriotism. Period."