Prisoner swap talks to be reopened

Following yesterday's meeting between Netanyahu and Mubarak it's been announced that the prisoner swap talks are to be reopened, with Egypt acting as intermediary.

TEL AVIV (AFP)--Israel and Egypt agreed Monday to renew Cairo-led efforts to broker a prisoner swap between the Jewish state and the Islamist Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip, senior officials said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will next week name a pointman to coordinate the indirect talks on the release of Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Gaza militants almost three years ago, a senior Israeli official told AFP.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told Netanyahu on Monday at the Red Sea resort town of Sharm Al-Sheikh that his intelligence chief Omar Suleiman "will immediately start contacts to renew the negotiations," another Israeli official said.

Negotiations in Cairo in mid-March aimed at securing the prisoner exchange foundered, with Hamas and Israel blaming each other for the failure.

The talks haven't been renewed since Netanyahu's right-leaning government took office last month, and the premier has so far refused to say whether he was willing to accept the outlines of the previous talks.

Israel, which fought a devastating 22-day war with Hamas in Gaza over the new year, has made a lasting ceasefire and an end to its blockade of the enclave conditional on Shalit's release.