Six Ugyur men, all former inmates at the United States' notorious Guantanamo Bay prison, have landed in Palau and say they are looking forward to starting new lives on the tropical Pacific island.

Gone were the long beards they wore at Gitmo. Instead the men were clean shaven and looked surprisingly fresh when they arrived last Sunday.

The resettlement comes after long negotiations, both with Palau and with the men, who their lawyers said knew little about the Pacific island nation and were concerned they would be isolated from their people. The six were among 22 Chinese Muslims seized by US forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 on suspicion of terrorism. They were held at Gitmo as enemy combatants until a federal court ruled last year they should be freed. Beijing calls the Uygur men terrorists and has demanded they be returned to China.