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The Pacific nation of Palau says it has agreed to a US request to temporarily resettle up to 17 Chinese Muslims.The 17 men are ethnic Uighurs, now being held at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre on Cuba,

Palau, a former US trust territory, grants diplomatic recognition to Taiwan, not China.

Palau, with a population of about 20,000, is an archipelago of eight main islands plus more than 250 islets that is best known for diving and tourism and is located some 800 km (500 miles) east of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean.

China has demanded the return of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighur detainees held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay.America should "stop handing over terrorist suspects to any third country," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. Palau, a former US Pacific territory which does not recognise China, has agreed to accept the ethnic Uighurs.

The Obama administration has all but abandoned plans to allow Guantanamo Bay detainees who have been cleared for release to live in the United States, administration officials said yesterday, a decision that reflects bipartisan congressional opposition to admitting such prisoners but complicates efforts to persuade European allies to accept them.

Four Uighur detainees, Chinese Muslims who were incarcerated at the U.S. military prison in Cuba for more than seven years, arrived early yesterday in Bermuda, where they will become foreign guest workers. An administration official said the United States is engaged in negotiations with other countries, including Palau, an island nation in the western Pacific, to find places for the remaining 13 Uighurs held at Guantanamo.

Congressional Democrats yesterday reached agreement on a war-funding bill that would allow detainees to be sent to the United States for trial. The draft bill included no provision for prolonged detention without trial, a step that President Obama has said will be necessary to incarcerate detainees who are too dangerous to release but who cannot be prosecuted.

A diplomatic spat has broken out over Bermuda's acceptance of four Chinese Muslim Uighurs released from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.Britain has told Bermuda, which is one of its overseas territories, it should have consulted London before agreeing to resettle the Uighurs.

Beijing has demanded the return of all Uighurs held by the US forces to China.

The four who were sent to Bermuda were part of a group of 17 Uighurs still at Guantanamo. Earlier in the week the Pacific island of Palau had also agreed to take the detainees.