Palau agrees to take 12 Uighurs from Guantanamo: U.S.

A view of Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base August 5, 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration has agreed with Palau to transfer up to 12 of the 13 Uighur Chinese detainees still held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the Pacific island nation, according to a letter obtained by Reuters on Thursday.

So far, six Uighurs have agreed to go to Palau and the Obama administration hopes two more will soon agree, according to a letter from the U.S. Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court, which is considering whether to hear an appeal by the detainees to be released.

Another four Uighurs have already been moved to Bermuda from the controversial U.S. military prison, which President Barack Obama has pledged to close by January 2010. At present, there are still some 226 detainees at the facility.

"The U.S. government has every reason to believe that at least six of the petitioners (Uighurs) shortly will be resettled in Palau, although it is impossible to be certain until they actually board the plane," Kagan said, adding they would not go before October 1.

Last week, the Obama administration told Congress that as many as eight Uighurs would be leaving Guantanamo as part of strict limits that lawmakers put on the White House so that they are in the loop on efforts to close the prison.

Congress has required the Obama administration to tell lawmakers when they plan to move detainees and then wait 15 days if they were being sent overseas or 45 days before they could be brought pm to U.S. soil for trial or detention.

China has demanded the Uighurs be returned there but the U.S. government has said it could not do so because they would face persecution, and it has searched for months for a nation willing to accept them.

The Uighurs, who come from China's largely Muslim far-west region of Xinjiang, were captured by the U.S. government during the invasion of Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks in the United Sates.

Kagan said in the letter the U.S. government was working "diligently to find an appropriate place to resettle the remaining Uighur detainees."

Since Obama took office, 14 detainees have been sent from Guantanamo to countries overseas and one detainee has been transferred to New York to stand trial on terrorism charges.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)