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Papua New Guinea officials say they would be prepared to reopen the Manus Island detention centre to help solve Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's asylum seeker problem.
PNG Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Abal told AAP in Port Moresby his government was open to the idea of offering the facility, which Australia used for offshore detention of asylum seekers under the previous government's so-called Pacific Solution policy.
"If there is a request from Australia, our government will consider it," he said.
The Manus Island detention centre in PNG's north was built in 2001 and closed in 2004. The facility is now used by the PNG Defence Force.
Manus Island Governor Michael Sapau urged Australia to revisit the centre and to talk to PNG's national government.
"The facility is still there, we've done this before," he told AAP.
"We are here, we would like to re-open and see the program continue," he said.
"Yes, we support. If the Australians wanted to reopen, as far as we're concerned, it's not a new program," he said.
Sapau said his province had prospered from the detention centre, benefiting from employment and Australian government funding for schools and other programs.
"It's up to both national governments, but we want to be a party to this on humanitarian grounds, to support the refugees and the Australians," he said.
The Pacific Solution was adopted after the Norwegian freighter Tampa reached Christmas Island in August 2001 carrying more than 400 mainly Afghan asylum seekers whom it had rescued at sea.
The Rudd government dropped its predecessor's tough policy on offshore detention and processing of asylum seekers after its 2007 election win, closing an Australian-funded detention camp on the Pacific island of Nauru.
However, it now processes asylum seekers at Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean while maintaining laws that excised certain islands from Australia's migration zone.
Comment on the PNG proposal is being sought from the Australian government.
