ABC
By Pacific correspondent Campbell Cooney
Posted Wed Nov 4, 2009 2:00pm AEDT

Palau is urging Australia to accept a group of Chinese Muslim Uighurs who spent seven years in detention at the Guantanomo Bay detention centre.

Six of the men were accepted by Palau over the weekend, but there are now efforts to find them a permanent home.

Palau President Johnson Toribiong says it is best in the long-term that they move to a country with an established Uighur community, and has Australia in mind.

There are concerns the Federal Government may not want to damage its relationship with China.

But a US lawyer representing three of the men now in Palau, Michael Stenhell, says they hope Australia will consider accepting the detainees.

Seven Uighurs remain in detention in Guantanamo Bay.

US President Barack Obama has signed a law barring detainees from being relocated to America.