Associated Press
JERUSALEM: Israeli officials on Monday denied claims that they were close to a deal that would secure the release of a captured soldier held by Palestinian militants, citing excessive demands by the Islamic Hamas.
Expectations have been building in the media that an announcement could be made at an Israel-Egypt summit on Thursday, but Israeli officials said no agreement was near.
Arab media outlets have been reporting for days that a deal to free the captured Israeli soldier is imminent, and Palestinian officials have disclosed specific details, saying Israel would carry out a scaled release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in return for the soldier.
The fate of Corporal Gilad Shalit has emerged as a formidable obstacle to Israel s goal of boosting the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Abbas on Dec. 23 and pledged a series of gestures, but the important step of freeing Palestinian prisoners has been held up by fruitless attempts by Egypt to broker the Israeli soldier s release.
One of the agreed steps was implemented Monday, when the Israeli military began easing security checks at crossing points, and Palestinians in the northern West Bank said traffic was flowing more freely, but hundreds of cars were stuck at a checkpoint at the entrance to Jericho after nightfall.
Olmert met Monday morning with top security officials, including Ofer Dekel, who is in charge of prisoner negotiations.
Participants concluded there has been no significant progress in negotiations with Hamas, citing excessive demands by the Islamic militant group, government officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the prisoner negotiations.
Hamas officials reported progress this week in the negotiations, and the Palestinian Ramattan news agency reported that the deal would be announced Thursday at the summit between Olmert and President Hosni Mubarak.
Palestinian officials in Cairo said that Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and Omar Suleiman, the head of Egyptian military intelligence, discussed the prisoner swap on Sunday night in Saudi Arabia.
Egypt is leaning on Hamas to lower its demands so they will be acceptable to Israel and so that Mubarak can announce a deal at Thursday s summit, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the contacts are secret.
Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin would say only that the prisoner swap will arise as a subject at the summit meeting.
