Indonesia says it expects the 78 Tamil asylum seekers who spent almost a month on Australia's Oceanic Viking to start being resettled as early as next week.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Australia and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had almost finished assessing the Tamils' refugee claims. "The process, I believe, is almost complete," he said.

"Then they will move to the stage to find third countries who can absorb those who are classified as refugees. We are still waiting on the announcement to what countries these people will be resettled."

Australia picked up the Sri Lankans in international waters inside Indonesia's search and rescue zone in October and took them to the Indonesian island of Bintan. But the Tamils refused to leave the Australian vessel and enter Bintan's detention centre, sparking a four week standoff.

The Rudd government finally enticed them ashore with the promise of rapid processing and resettlement in a third country – most likely Australia. Under the special deal, the government promised that those assessed as refugees would be resettled within four to 12 weeks.

Next Friday marks four weeks since the first of the Tamils stepped ashore. Asked if Indonesia expected the resettlements to begin as early as next week, Faizasyah said: "We are very much hopeful that we can meet the commitment made earlier."

The head of the detention centre, Sugiyo, said the Tamils were still being kept separate from other detention centre inmates and were all "doing fine".