A media report says the Pacific island nation of Palau has agreed to accept temporarily a group of Chinese Muslims who are being held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba facility for suspected terrorists.

Photo taken on 01 June shows a guard and a Chinese Uighur Guantanamo detainee communicating at the Camp Iguana detention facility at Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, CubaThe Associated Press says it has received a statement from Palau President Johnson Toribiong saying that his country would be "honored and proud" to temporarily resettle the 17 Uighers.  

A U.S. federal judge ordered the Uighers released last year into the United States, but an appeals court overturned that decision in April.   

The Obama administration has been negotiating with several nations to take the Uighers, who are from China's western Xinjiang province.  Beijing has accused the Uighers, who dominate the province, of wanting to create an independent "East Turkestan."  

Washington fears the Uighers will be persecuted if they are returned to China.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.