Palau to take Chinese Uighurs

WASHINGTON, June 10 (UPI) -- The Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to take 17 Chinese Muslims detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. officials said Wednesday.

The State Department, while thanking Palau for being willing to take on the prisoners, said details were yet to be worked out, McClatchy Newspapers reported.

The United States is in talks with Palau to provide $200 million in aid over the next several years. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said there was no connection between those discussions and the detainee issue, McClatchy said.

Palau, once a U.S. trust territory in the Pacific, has maintained close ties with the United States since it declared independence in 1994.

Until Palau stepped up, the United States was having trouble finding a place for the Uighurs as it moves to shut down the detention center at Guantanamo by the end of the year.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had recently written a letter to the Palauan government, thanking them for considering the resettlement of some, if not all of the 17 Uighurs, who are accused of receiving weapons and military training in Afghanistan. While some of them have been cleared for release since 2003, the United States won't return them to China out of concern they would be tortured, CNN said.

Daniel Fried, the Obama administration's special envoy overseeing the closure of Guantanamo prison, visited Palau and Australia as part of a tour of the Pacific region, the State Department confirmed while providing no details of visit, CNN said.