Hamas said today it hoped Israel would resume talks on exchanging hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for a captured Israeli soldier after two days of indirect negotiations in Egypt ended in deadlock.
Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has made freedom for Gilad Shalit a precondition for a wider truce with the Gaza Strip's Hamas Islamist rulers and the opening of the enclave's borders to crucial reconstruction aid after Israel's offensive in December and January.
Mr Olmert has been making a last-ditch push for Shalit's release before handing over to right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, who is trying to form a government following Israel's parliamentary election last month.
"I hope that Olmert will listen to the voice of reason and come back to pursue the talks to reach a deal by meeting (our) conditions," senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Reuters by telephone from Lebanon.
"But if the Israeli government sticks to its negative position, it will not be possible to clinch a deal, at least at the present time," Mr Hamdan said.
Israel accused Hamas yesterday of hardening its stance in the Egyptian-brokered talks.
In exchange for the soldier, who was seized by militants who tunnelled into Israel from the Gaza Strip in 2006, Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 Palestinian prisoners. They include about 450 long-serving inmates.
Mr Olmert was briefed by his two envoys to the Cairo negotiations and planned to hold a cabinet meeting later in the day to decide how to proceed.
"If Israel wants to reach a deal, it should come with a serious offer," Hamdan said, without elaborating.
An Israeli security source, suggesting the gap was narrowing, said yesterday that Israel was objecting to the release of fewer than 50 of the Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas.
Another dispute centred on Israeli demands that some of the prisoners be exiled, a condition that Hamas's armed wing has publicly rejected.
Reuters