Eoin Blackwell / AAPIMAGE

The Australian newspaper reports the prime minister is "poised" to strike a deal in the final months of the Obama presidency, aimed at closing the detention centres on Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island and sending the1800 refugees to the US.

News of the deal comes amid a parliamentary debate about whether refugees who try to come to Australia by boat should be permanently banned from Australia, which the Turnbull government has said is a necessary precursor to a long-term resettlement deal with a third country.