The Australian government is considering changing its law to allow a people-swap deal with Malaysia to go ahead, Attorney General Robert McClelland said Saturday.

The High Court last week declared a deal negotiated by Immigration Minister Chris Bowen invalid because Malaysia accords no legal protection to either asylum seekers or to those whom the United Nations classifies as refugees.

"We believe an amendment can be crafted that essentially gives, if you like, a stronger discretion to the minister to determine the appropriate destination for offshore processing," McClelland told national broadcaster ABC.

Pushing an amendment through Parliament to circumvent the court ruling and allow offshore processing anywhere the minister deems fit would need support from opposition Liberal Party leader Tony Abbott.

Though Abbott favours offshore processing - he has urged the government to forget Malaysia and reopen the Australian-financed detention centre in the Pacific nation of Nauru that was mothballed in 2004 - he may opt to reject the amendment just to thwart the government.

Under a deal announced April 7 and signed July 25, Australia agreed to take 4,000 refugees from Malaysia in return for Malaysia taking the next 800 asylum seekers arriving in Australia on boats from Indonesia.

In the 15 months Julia Gillard has been prime minister, 100 boats have landed and more than 6,500 people mostly from the Middle East have asked for asylum.

There are 5,308 asylum seekers in detention in Australia.

- dpa