Australia offers to pay jail fees for death row duo in Indonesia

Australia has offered to pay the costs of life sentences in jail for two of its citizens currently on death row for drug smuggling in Indonesia, if they are granted clemency.

Australian pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran are set to face the firing squad imminently after being arrested in 2005 for a plot to smuggle 8.3 km heroin from Bali to Australia.

While the Australian government's ongoing attempts at sparing their lives have so far fallen on deaf ears, with the pair recently transferred to Nusakambangan Island, where they will be executed, foreign minister Julie Bishop is not giving up hope.

In a letter penned to Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi and revealed on Thursday, Bishop suggested Australia pays for the costs of offering the duo life sentences in prison, instead of the death penalty.

Bishop also puts forward the proposal of a "one-off" prisoner swap, in which a group of Indonesian prisoners convicted of attempting to smuggle 390 km heroin to Australia in 1998 would be transferred in exchange for Chan and Sukumaran.

"There are Indonesian prisoners in Australian prisons, arrested by Australian police for seeking to import 390 kilograms of heroin into Australia, 47 times the amount that Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran and their co-convicted sought to smuggle from Indonesia to Australia," Bishop's letter to Marsudi read.

"As discussed, the Australian government would be prepared to cover the costs of the ongoing life imprisonment of Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran should a transfer not be possible.

"The vast majority of Australians very strongly support the government's efforts to seek clemency for Mr Chan and Mr Sukumaran.

"We would not want to see their execution compromise the strong tie we have worked so hard to foster over many years."

However, the proposal has been swiftly rejected by Marsudi, who reminded Australia that there was no means by which Indonesia could accept their offer.

"Let me reiterate that there is no legal basis within the Indonesian law that would allow for such an exchange to take place, " Marsudi said in reply.

"I have also conveyed your concerns to President Joko Widodo. The president is of the position that such an exchange cannot be undertaken."

Meanwhile, Australia's most senior Islamic cleric Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday to meet with the country's religious affairs minister, Lukman Saifuddin, to plead for Indonesia to show mercy to the two Australians. Endi