(CNN) -- WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website sitting on a giant trove of U.S. diplomatic cables, didn't expect the papers to reveal as much espionage as they apparently do, a spokesman said Monday.

"I was surprised at (the) extent of the spying," Kristinn Hrafnsson told CNN.

The leaked papers include what seems to be an order from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to American diplomats to engage in intelligence-gathering.

Clinton directed her envoys at embassies around the world to collect information ranging from basic biographical data on diplomats to their frequent flyer and credit card numbers, and even "biometric information on ranking North Korean diplomats."

Typical biometric information includes fingerprints, signatures, and iris recognition data.

The cable, simply signed 'CLINTON', is classified S/NF - or 'Secret/No Foreign' - and was sent to 33 embassies and the U.N. mission offices in New York, Vienna, and Rome.

"Is it a natural part of diplomatic activity to have diplomats collecting biometric data?" WikiLeaks spokesman Hrafnsson asked Monday, calling it "a contravention of how diplomats are supposed to conduct business."

The State Department denied its diplomats were spies.

"Contrary to some Wikileaks' reporting, our diplomats are diplomats. They are not intelligence assets," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Twitter.

He further downplayed the cable's significance by writing in a separate tweet: "Diplomats collect information that shapes our policies and actions. Diplomats for all nations do the same thing."

WikiLeaks spokesman Hrafnsson denied that Sunday's release of papers harmed United States security.

"I don't believe anything in these cables are national security concerns," he said.

"If we are talking about strained relations or embarrassment, that does not fall into national security concerns," he said with a shrug.

WikiLeaks claims it has 251,288 cables sent by American diplomats between the end of 1966 and February 2010, which it will release piecemeal over the course of weeks or months, Hrafnsson said.

Of those, 8,017 originated from the office of the secretary of state, and more than 15,600 are classified as secret, WikiLeaks said as began releasing the papers Sunday.

"Secret" is not the highest level of classification, Hrafnsson pointed out. WikiLeaks does not have any top secret documents, he added.

More than half are unclassified, he said.

Top U.S. officials were quick to denounce the publication of the leaked documents Sunday.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said publishing the documents would jeopardize "our diplomats, intelligence professionals and people around the world who come to the United States for assistance in promoting democracy and open government."

And the British Foreign Office followed suit Monday, saying it condemned any release of classified documents.

"They can damage national security, are not in the national interest and, as the U.S. (has) said, may put lives at risk," the office said in a statement.

A spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari weighed in with a statement about documents mentioning Zardari and Saudi King Abdullah, saying the "so-called leaks are no more than an attempt to create misperceptions between two important and brotherly Muslim countries."

The office of Afghan President Hamid Karzai downplayed the significance of the revelations.

"The things that have been said about President Karzai are not new. They've been alleged in the media in the past and we are not surprised," a spokesman for Karzai told reporters.

The New York Times and four European newspapers that had received the documents in advance began publishing excerpts earlier Sunday.

Many of them detail conversations on sensitive issues between American officials and leaders in the Middle East, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Major topics in the documents include pressure from U.S. allies in the Middle East for decisive action to neutralize Iran's nuclear program, conversations about military action against al Qaeda militants in Yemen and Washington's efforts to have highly enriched uranium removed from a Pakistani research reactor.

"The cables show the U.S. spying on its allies and the U.N.; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in 'client states'; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; and lobbying for U.S. corporations," the site's editor-in-chief and spokesman, Julian Assange, said in a statement released Sunday evening.

CNN's Kevin Conlon, Yesim Comert, Reza Sayah, Samson Desta and Antonia Mortensen contributed to this report.

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