Greens leader Bob Brown has slammed plans to reopen Papua New Guinea's Manus Island detention centre, saying it will lead to hardship and mental illness for asylum seekers.

The ABC has confirmed the Federal Government is set to recommission the facility despite repeated pledges that the Howard-era Pacific Solution was dead and buried.

Senator Brown told ABC News Breakfast the Labor Party was drifting towards "the Tony Abbott or John Howard solution".

But he said despite the move the Greens would continue to support Prime Minister Julia Gillard's minority government "because the Abbott Coalition is worse".

"We should process these people onshore," Senator Brown said.

"If they are illegal they should be sent home, if they are not - and most of them are not - they should be integrated into Australian society as asylum seekers as this country had always before the Howard era.

"It will create huge hardship and punishment for innocent people who are fleeing from persecution or great danger elsewhere in the world.

"We know that such camps lead to mental illness, extreme hardship and very poor ramifications as far as Australia's reputation is concerned."

It is reported Papua New Guinea's cabinet will meet today and is likely to ratify the proposal.

Australian and Papua New Guinean officials have told locals on Manus Island the detention centre for asylum seekers will be reopened after the Immigration Department recently toured the facility.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen has flagged an announcement on regional processing of asylum seekers but has not commented directly on the revelations.

But a Manus resident who wants to remain anonymous told ABC1's Lateline that a charter plane carrying Australian and PNG officials flew to the island yesterday afternoon.

Among them was a senior official from the Australian High Commission, officers from the Immigration Department and PNG's chief migration officer.

They inspected the detention centre and told local leaders there will be a regional processing centre for asylum seekers on Manus Island, subject to approval by PNG's national executive council.

Locals say they were told there would be an announcement from the foreign ministers of both countries within days.

The Manus Island detention centre was dismantled under former prime minister Kevin Rudd. Last year the then-immigration minister Chris Evans ruled out reopening it.

In Adelaide this morning Ms Gillard repeatedly refused to say if the reopening of the Manus Island centre is being considered.

"As Prime Minister when I first talked about the very complex problem of people smuggling, I said I was committed to a regional solution and we have been pursuing discussions in our region and with the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees on a regional solution," she said.

"When I've got something to announce arising from those discussions then I'll announce it."

Backflip

The Opposition has been calling on the Government to concede that its plan to have a regional processing centre in East Timor has failed.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has demanded the Prime Minister explain her embrace of the Pacific Solution after saying it was an affront to human rights under the Howard government.

He says reopening Manus Island does not go far enough and Nauru's facility should be reopened as well.

"On its own, Manus Island won't stop the boats and it won't end the protests," he said.

"We also had Nauru, there were temporary protection visas and there was also, in some instances, turning around boats."

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says Ms Gillard has backflipped on the issue.

"She's said on numerous occasions the Pacific Solution was a costly, unsustainable and wrong as a matter of policy," he told AM.

"If the Government is about to do an about turn and finally recognise that her East Timor proposal was always a never-never plan, then that's quite an admission of failure by the Prime Minister."

Step backwards

But asylum seeker advocates agree with Senator Brown's stance, saying reopening a detention centre on Manus Island will be a step backwards.

Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre spokesman David Manne says in the past genuine refugees have been left in exile on the island.

"The real harm that was done here was casting genuine refugees into indefinite exile in a poor Pacific nation, held on an island in poor conditions, and left in limbo without any guarantee that they'd be resettled in a timely way to safety and security for the future," he said.

He is concerned a bilateral agreement with PNG would undermine the goal of a regional solution.

"This could well run completely contrary to that worthy ambition by striking a bilateral arrangement with just one other country, which appears to be Australia essentially contravening its own obligations to refugees by deflecting its obligations onto another poor Pacific nation," he said.