Their arrival follows the inclusion of a number of the city's facilities in the London 2012 Pre-Games Training Camp Guide and is part
of a wider agreement to encourage Olympic nations to use Northwest facilities as 2012 training camps, in the build up to the London 2012
Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: ''Liverpool is honoured to be welcoming these athletes and is delighted to be acting as a training camp for major sporting competitions. These are the first wave of what we hope will be many more Olympic nations over the next two years.
''This visit also demonstrates the legacy of building major facilities like the aquatics centre, as they help showcase the city to the world and will ensure Liverpool continues to play a significant role in the build up to London 2012 and other future major sporting events.''
The teams, which form part of the 15 Pacific Island countries of Oceania, will be utilising the aquatics centre facilities twice a day and will be integrating with the City of Liverpool squad training.
The athletes of Fiji and Palau were given a special civic welcome at Liverpool Town Hall at 1pm on Friday, July 17 from Liverpool's Lord Mayor and Paul Deighton, Chief Executive of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
Mr Deighton's visit comes just weeks after LOCOG Chairman Seb Coe toured Merseyside's major sporting facilities and praised it for the way the region is engaging youngsters in sport.
Andy Worthington, Chair of the Northwest Steering Group for the 2012 Games, said: "I'm really pleased to welcome Fiji and
Palau for their first training camp in Liverpool. This shows what we can achieve when we work in partnership, not only in providing
excellent training facilities for world-class teams but also in developing wider sporting, cultural and educational links.
''It's fantastic to see these athletes training alongside the Liverpool squad within the local community, which can only help to inspire local
people to connect with the Games."
This week's training camp is as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC) and the Northwest in December 2008. This is an agreement for Oceania to use the region as its training base in the build up to London 2012 and hopefully beyond looking to the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Liverpool Aquatics Centre is the biggest investment in the city's swimming facility for decades, and together with an Indoor Tennis Centre, Athletics Centre and extensive synthetic and grass sports pitches forms part of the Wavertree Sports Park.
Its 50m pool has a unique moveable floor which allows the depth to be varied and can even be raised above the water line for
it to be used for dry sports such as aerobics. It also houses a 400 seat athletics arena, meaning the centre can host major championships.
The state-of-the-art £17m facility in Wavertree has been a runaway success since it was officially opened by Britain's Olympic swimming
squad last July at the national shortcourse championships.
As well as clocking up half a million users in less than a year, the centre, which has an Olympic sized 50m pool that can split in to three
different sizes - has also attracted more than 3,500 new members. All children under-17 in Liverpool are also able to use it at no cost using
their free council Future Lifestyles passes, as can over 60s through the Lifestyles Senior programme.
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