Indirect talks were set to begin Saturday in Cairo between an Israeli team and officials from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas to put the finishing touches to a prisoner-swap deal, according to a senior Egyptian source, DPA reported.
"The two teams will agree on a mechanism to implement the deal, including when and where it will be carried out," the source told the London-based newspaper Al Hayat in remarks published Saturday.
Under the agreement, announced Tuesday, Israel is to free 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for soldier, Gilad Shalit who has been held captive in Gaza for the past five years.
The source said the talks would be held under Egyptian auspices but denied media reports that the actual exchange would take place in the Egyptian border town of Rafah.
The paper quoted the same source as saying that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was likely to meet with the chief of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, in Cairo on Wednesday.
"Such a meeting will provide momentum for inter-Palestinian reconciliation," said the Egyptian