PNG is 100% behind asylum deal: Rudd

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd is certain he has 100 per cent support from the Papua New Guinea government for his tough new asylum seeker policy.

Mr Rudd was queried about the deal after PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill told Fairfax Media he had not agreed to settle all the asylum seekers who were found to be refugees after they are processed on Manus Island.

Mr O'Neill reportedly said Australia would need to take back a share of them.

"There is no agreement that all genuine refugees will be settled in PNG," he said.

The coalition and the Australian Greens seized on the report, saying it showed the deal was unravelling.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said Mr O'Neill had "flatly contradicted" Mr Rudd's claim about their asylum seeker deal.

"You just can't trust this prime minister," he said.

But Mr Rudd said the government of PNG confirmed its "100 per cent support" again on Saturday and he could "absolutely" guarantee that no person sent by a people smuggler on a boat to Australia without a visa would be settled in Australia.

He referred to a section of the agreement with PNG that says: "Persons found to be refugees will be resettled in Papua New Guinea and other participating regional states including Pacific island states."

"That's what we agreed to ... that has been confirmed as late as today," Mr Rudd told reporters in Adelaide.

Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison had earlier called on Mr Rudd to "be honest" about the true nature of the deal with PNG.

"What we've seen is comical Kevin desperately denying what is increasingly obvious to everyone - that not only is this PNG arrangement unravelling but also his own campaign is unravelling," Mr Morrison said in Melbourne.

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