Israel Seeks Quicker Steps To Free Soldier In Gaza

Israel is trying to accelerate talks to secure the release of a soldier held captive in the Gaza Strip since 2006, Defence Minister Ehud Barak said in remarks televised on Saturday.

Barak's comments came as Israeli leaders met to review progress in talks hosted by Egypt to cement a truce between Israel and Hamas Islamists in control of Gaza.

A Hamas official told Reuters that with the additional mediation of Turkey and Qatar, talks to free soldier Gilad Shalit, captured in 2006, have recently made "significant progress." He would not elaborate.

But Osama al-Muzaini, a senior Hamas official close to talks on freeing the soldier, dismissed Israel's claims of progress.

Hamas has also given mixed signals on the status of talks for a deal to widen a ceasefire from Jan. 18 that ended a 22-day Israeli offensive in the coastal territory, in which 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.

Hamas insists Israel lift a blockade on Gaza's crossings while Israel says it will not do so unless Shalit is released. Hamas has said it would free Shalit in return for Israel freeing 1,400 of its prisoners.

"We want to see Gilad Shalit here and are dealing with this day and night," Barak said at a campaign appearance on Saturday.

"A supreme effort is being made to accelerate the process that will bring about Gilad's safe return home," Barak added.

The sudden clinching of a deal for Shalit's freedom could boost Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's centrist Kadima party and Barak's left-wing Labour in a national election on Tuesday that rightist leader Benjamin Netanyahu is now favoured to win.

Muzaini said talk of progress towards Shalit's was "election-motivated."

He told Reuters on Friday "there has been no progress in the file for several months and that is because (Israel) remains unwilling to pay the price," referring to demands to free prisoners convicted of involvement in suicide bombings.

Senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, making his first public appearance since the Israeli offensive, arrived in Cairo on Saturday where Hamas officials said he would likely hear Israel's responses to the group's demands for a longer truce.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Livni and Barak about the talks with Hamas being held in Cairo, moving up a meeting they had planned for Sunday, political sources said.