JERUSALEM - Israel's prime minister was trying to line up cabinet support Monday for releasing larger numbers of Palestinian prisoners in an effort to win the freedom of an Israeli soldier captured by Gaza militants, officials said.
Haim Ramon, a key all of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, was to convene senior ministers Monday afternoon to debate Olmert's proposal to ease the release criteria to include Palestinians involved in failed attacks on Israelis, government officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the debate.
Israel's refusal to free those Palestinians has held up a deal to swap 450 prisoners for Gilad Shalit, the soldier seized by Hamas-linked militants from Gaza in a cross-border raid last year, Israeli defense officials said. They also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the talks, which have been mediated by Egypt.
Israel is holding about 9,000 Palestinians and their release is a central demand of Palestinian authorities.
Israel and the Hamas rulers of Gaza had at one point agreed on a list of about 450 prisoners that includes supporters of both Hamas and the rival Fatah movement of the moderate Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Ephraim Sneh, a lawmaker on parliament's influential Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
But Israel's criteria for releasing prisoners are currently so stringent that few of the prisoners in Israeli jails could meet them, Sneh said.
"At the moment that we modify the standards, we can have in our hands more cards for this tradeoff," Sneh said. "We give ourselves broader room to maneuver and more flexibility to achieve what we would like to achieve."
Olmert is seeking ministerial backing for broadening the release criteria because he has been unable to persuade the chief of the Shin Bet security agency, Yuval Diskin, to ease them, the Yediot Ahronot newspaper reported Monday.
Although Olmert could make the change himself, such a decision made alone could be highly unpopular among the Israeli public, so Olmert wants senior ministers to back him, the newspaper said.
Israel and Hamas have no direct contacts because of the Islamic group's history of suicide bombings against Israelis and its refusal to recognize the Jewish state's right to exist. But Egypt has been mediating on the Shalit affair.
Olmert's move coincides with Hamas overtures for a cease-fire in Gaza, where weeks of Israeli ground and air strikes aimed at militants who fire rockets at Israel have exacted a heavy toll. Israeli defense officials said Israel was considering the Hamas proposal, even though Olmert on Sunday ruled out a truce.
On Sunday, Olmert declared that Israel was at war with Hamas, and that a truce would not be negotiated. Officials say that if Gaza militants stop the rocket fire, then Israel would have no reason to attack.
Media reports said Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was expected to discuss Hamas' cease-fire overtures in a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday.
Olmert held a rare meeting on Sunday with the family of the captured Israeli soldier Shalit, telling them there had been no breakthrough in efforts to win his release, Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported.
Hamas wrested control of Gaza from Fatah in June. Since then, Israel and the Palestinians have resumed peace talks without Hamas involvement, and Israel has tried to bolster Abbas' standing among the Palestinian public with goodwill gestures in an effort to demonstrate that moderation pays.
Since July, Israel has renewed tax transfers worth hundreds of millions of dollars and released about 770 Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators were to meet later Monday to press ahead with peace talks set in motion at a U.S.-sponsored conference last month.
The talks on a final peace deal have already hit on a snag over the Palestinians' demand that Israel stop building in areas Palestinians want for a future state. Israel insists it can build in all of Jerusalem and to accommodate what it calls "natural growth" in major West Bank settlements.
"We must negotiate with the Israelis to stop settlement expansion and to establish our state," Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Monday. "But with the current Israeli position, we can't go one step forward in negotiations."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Monday that Israel's construction plans for a contested east Jerusalem neighborhood and West Bank endanger the Mideast peace process.
