Israel denied claims that it had asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to act as mediator in negotiations over a possible prisoner swap, saying Monday it had only asked the UN chief to assist in efforts to return Israeli soldiers kidnapped by the Hezbollah.

Annan said on Monday he would appoint a secret envoy to work for the release of the soldiers.

"A mediator is not needed," a government official said. "The UN resolution determines that the soldiers will be released unconditionally. The UN Secretary-General will assist and not mediate."

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Annan on Monday said that Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to begin negotiations moderated by the UN on a prisoner exchange that would see the release of two Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted in July.

Annan agreed to mediate in efforts for the release of the soldiers after requests from both Hezbollah and Israel, Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said Monday.

Fawzi said the precise definition of the role he would play was not an issue.

"I think that we are on the same page and I really don't want to go into the definitions. The main issue is that he has offered his good offices and they have been accepted... What we are trying to achieve is the release of the soldiers," Fawzi said.

Annan, who met leaders in Lebanon and Israel last week, said both sides had accepted his offer.

According to a New York Times report, both Israel and Annan have picked their representatives for the talks, while "Lebanon Hezbollah" was still narrowing down its choices. The names of the representatives would not be released, according to the report, as talks would be conducted secretly.

The purpose of UN mediation would be to set the ground for more effective talks between Lebanon and Israel on the prisoner exchange, the report said. According to the report, Annan has insisted on control of the talks, and has refused outside interference.

"Everywhere you go, you hear rumors that this country is doing it or the other," he said. "If I'm going to take it on, my mediator should be the sole mediator," Annan was quoted as saying. "If others get in, we will pull out."

The talks were to focus primarily on the IDF soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, kidnapped in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas on July 12, sparking a month-long conflict between Israel and the Islamist group in Lebanon. Annan said the release of IDF soldier

The release of IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas militant in a separate cross-border raid, could also be raised in the negotiations, the report said.

This would be the first time that Israel has publicly agreed to indirect
contacts with the Lebanese guerrilla group over winning the release of the soldiers.

The lobby for missing and captured soldiers said it was pleased with Annan's decision to mediate the talks, saying it was a step toward fulfilling the cease-fire deal agreed upon by the UN Security Council.

"Annan is obligated to fulfill the conditions of the cease-fire agreement accepted by the UN Security Council, which has at the top of its list the release of the abducted soldiers. We believe and hope he will succeed in bringing results as he said in his meeting with the families last week," they said.

Jesse Jackson to Hezbollah: Show proof soldiers are alive
U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson on Monday met with Hezbollah officials in Lebanon and called on them to show proof that the two captured Israeli soldiers are still alive.

Jackson's talks coincided with a report in an Egyptian newspaper that Hezbollah refuses to open negotiations on prisoner exchange as long as Israel blockades Lebanon and Israeli soldiers remain in south Lebanon.

According to the Monday report in the the Egyptian state-sponsored newspaper Al Hayat, Lebanese sources said that Hezbollah's position was presented to German spy chief Ernest Urlau during his visit to Beirut over the weekend.

Jackson said that if Hezbollah showed proof the soldiers were alive, the move could jump-start negotiations that might lead to the soldiers' release. He said there were indications the two soldiers captured July 12 were alive, but said their continued detention is "becoming a magnet to attract a second round" of war.

Hezbollah seized the two soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border raid that sparked the month-long war. The conflict ended August 14 with a shaky cease-fire.

Jackson has been in the Middle East for a week and half as head of a 10-member ecumenical delegation representing Jewish, Muslim, Roman Catholic and Protestant groups. His mission to gain the soldiers' release has taken him to Israel and Syria, and to Lebanon twice.

Jackson declined to name the Hezbollah officials he met with, but said he was hoping for a response later Monday to his call to prove the soldiers are alive, possibly with video evidence.

"My impression is if Hezbollah shows a sign of life or shows the soldiers, that it will trigger a response," Jackson told said on the terrace of a hotel overlooking Beirut's skyline. "They ought to show signs of life, and video evidence, because it would jump-start a framework to start talks."

Hezbollah has said the two soldiers captured on July 12 could be released only through a prisoner exchange with Israel. But Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has not said what he wants in return for releasing the prisoners.

Jackson said one of Hezbollah's key demands was the release of three Lebanese prisoners held in Israeli jails. One of those, Samir Kuntar, Israel's longest-held Lebanese prisoner, has been imprisoned since 1979 for an attack in Nahariya in which three Israelis were killed, one a four-year-old girl killed by a blow from Kuntar's rifle butt.

The other two are Nasim Nisr, a Lebanese-born Israeli captured for having contacts with Hezbollah, and Yehia Skaff, who was detained in 1978 while taking part in a Palestinian terrorist attack that killed 35 Israelis.

Report: Hezbollah demands IDF pullout before talks
German intelligence chief Urlau conducted the 2004 talks that led to the release of Israeli Elhanan Tenenbaum and the bodies of IDF soldiers Adi Avitan, Benny Avraham and Omar Suad.

During his visit, Urlau met with the Lebanese army MI chief and several Hezbollah officials, in an attempt to establish if the Shiite organization would agree for Germany to mediate a prisoner exchange with Israel.

Hezbollah has said in the past that it would accept as a mediator any party approved by Israel.

The Al Hayat report said that Hezbollah would only begin negotiations once the IDF completes its full withdrawal from southern Lebanon, Lebanese army and UNIFIL complete their deployment, and Israel removes its air and sea blockade of the country.

The paper also reported that Hezbollah militants retrieved body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in the war, but the organization refuses to provide details on the number of bodies in its possession.

Hezbollah also refuses to give details on the health of the two abducted soliders, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.