New Zealand offers to take 150 refugees

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she would offer to take 150 refugees held by Australia when she meets counterpart Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday, promising Canberra a breather from a stand-off at a Papua New Guinea detention site.

For more than three days, about 600 men have barricaded themselves inside in a camp on Manus Island, defying efforts by Australia and Papua New Guinea to shut it, despite having no food or running water.

New Zealand yesterday became the first country to publicly offer to intercede, when Arden said she would offer to take 150 refugees from Australia's two remote Pacific detention centres at the meeting with Turnbull in Sydney.