Up to 17 ethnic Uighur Muslims are to be transferred from Guantánamo Bay to the tiny North Pacific island of Palau. The United States has struck the deal to avoid repatriating the inmates to China, where it is feared they could be persecuted or executed.

The Chinese government, which has demanded their return, accuses some Uighurs of leading an Islamist separatist movement in far western China, and Beijing has pressured countries to reject any pleas for asylum.

Chinese Uighur detainees talk to reporters at the Camp Iguana detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The tiny Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to temporarily resettle up to 17 Chinese Uighur detainees from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay (AFP/File/Brennan Linsley) In what he called a humanitarian gesture, Johnson Toribiong, the President of Palau, told Associated Press today that his Government — which has ties with Taiwan rather than China — agreed to accommodate the American request to temporarily resettle the Uighur detainees "subject to period review".

China's Foreign Ministry did not react immediately to the news.

Palau — a group of eight main islands 500 miles east of the Philippines that are home to 20,000 people and multiple scuba diving companies — is taking 50 prisoners for resettlement from the Guantánamo camp in Cuba.

President Obama has vowed to close the camp since taking office in January but has faced fierce bipartisan opposition in Congress to the detainees being resettled inside the United States.

American officials who declined to be named said that Washington was prepared to give Palau up to $200 million (£122 million) in long-term development aid in return for accepting the Uighurs and as part of a defence and co-operation treaty that is due to be renegotiated this year.

Palau, a US territory until independence in 1994, relies on Washington for its defence.

The Guantánamo Uighurs, who were captured in Afghanistan in 2001, have lived with uncertainty for nearly a year, since a US federal district court ordered their release into the United States only for that ruling to be overturned on appeal.

The Bush Administration did not view the Uighurs as enemy combatants, a status assigned to many of the Guantánamo detainees.

For months, the US was unable to persuade any of about 100 governments to grant asylum, including Australia and Germany, which both have significant Uighur populations.

In 2006, Albania accepted five Uighur detainees from Guantánamo but has balked at taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.