But Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declined to comment on the negotiations when asked on 3AW radio on Friday.

'We never comment on them and I won't begin today,' he said.

Immigration department chief Michael Pezzullo told a parliamentary committee the government was closer to a deal.

'We are working actively on those arrangements ... today we are closer than what we were yesterday,' he said.

He claimed a public interest immunity on how many and which countries are in negotiations with Australia.

Quizzed about the human rights criteria resettlement countries will have to meet, Mr Pezzullo said once the arrangements are struck the partners will be 'considered to be appropriate'.

Cabinet Minister Christopher Pyne didn't confirm the report but noted it was two months until the Obama administration ended.

'It is certainly true we have closed 17 of your detention centres in the last three years...and we would all dearly love to see Nauru and Manus empty as well,' Mr Pyne told Sky News on Friday.

'Of course there are opportunities for people now to resettle and when those two detention centres are empty, we will be there first people to celebrate them being closed.'

Shadow defence minister Richard Marles said Labor has advocated for third country resettlement for a long time and it was a 'disgrace' people have been detained for so long.

'If there is a deal on the cards, and you can get those people off Manus to the United States or indeed anywhere else that would be a fantastic result,' Mr Marles said.

Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese welcomed the news.

'These are people who are refugees, who have been found to be refugees, who, if they are settled in a country like the United States, that will be a good thing,' he said.

Defence Minister Marise Payne would not shed light on the report, saying third- country arrangements were up to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.

'I'm sure they'll come to government at an appropriate time,' she told ABC radio.

Mr Dutton's office did not comment.

In September, the Turnbull government agreed to resettle a group of Central America refugees currently housed in Costa Rica, under an agreement with the US.

At the time the government denied it could amount to a 'people swap' for Nauru and Manus Island detainees.

Labor was critical of a 2007 deal between the US and Australia.

The agreement, which didn't result in any transfers, was to involve Haitians and Cubans coming to Australia and refugees from the Nauru facility going to the US.

Comment was being sought from the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

AAP