Washington, Dec 21 : Bradley Manning, the US Army private accused of sharing classified documents with Wikileaks, communicated directly with the whistle blowing website’s founder Julian Assange, its has been claimed.

During a court hearing, which began on Friday, the prosecution said that evidence from Manning''s computers and storage devices suggested he had been in contact with Assange, The BBC reports.

Digital investigator David Shaver told the hearing in the US state of Maryland that he discovered a data card owned by Manning, which held 500,000 classified battlefield reports as well as contact details for Julian Assange.

Shaver also recently said that that he had found 110,000 US state department cables on Manning’s workstation.

However, it was not clear if they had been shared, and some of them did not match any of the ones published by Wikileaks, he conceded.

According to the report, in other arguments, prosecutors cited a conversation between Manning and mathematician Eric Schmiedl in which the accused allegedly boasted about leaking a 2007 video of a helicopter attack to Wikileaks.

“I was the source of the 12 July, 2007, video from the Apache Weapons Team which killed the two journalists and injured two kids,” Pte Manning said, according to the prosecution.

The ongoing court hearing will determine if the 24-year-old Manning, who was arrested in May 2010, should face a court-martial.

Charged with 22 counts of distributing state secrets, the former US Army intelligence analyst could face life in prison if convicted. (ANI)