Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says she did not visit sites where single male asylum seekers are held on Nauru because she was advised it could disrupt the peace.

Ms Bishop has come under fire for praising the conditions for asylum seekers on Nauru, after Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young claimed that the minister had only visited staff housing, not the detainee tent accommodation.

Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop

This week, the Foreign Minister led a cross-party delegation to Nauru, that also include Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek. On Friday, her office conceded that the Foreign Minister had only visited the area known as "OPC1" in the detention centre. It is understood the site only includes staff facilities and new accommodation being built - not existing accommodation for asylum seekers.

''There are three offshore processing sites on Nauru. The Minister and her delegation comprising Shadow Foreign Minister Plibersek, Parliamentary Secretary Brett Mason and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Thistlethwaite, visited OPC1 where many of the facilities had been burnt down by transferees mid-year,'' a spokeswoman from Ms Bishop's office said.