Environment Minister Gideon Ezra told Israel Radio on Monday that Israel should consider freeing jailed Palestinian militant leader Marwan Barghouti in a prisoner exchange for captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.

Asked whether the 47-year-old Barghouti should be freed as has been demanded by the Palestinian leadership, Ezra, a former security chief, said: "The question is how big the (swap) deal would be, and what the other side would promise."

"If the Palestinian Authority prevents arms smuggling in the Philadelphi Route [from Egypt to Gaza], then I am in favor," said Ezra. "If the Palestinian Authority promises to crush terrorism, as it undertook to do, then I am in favor."

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Barghouti was convicted of several counts of murder for ordering terror attacks against Israeli civilians, and is currently serving five life sentences in Hadarim Prison.

A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, however, played down Ezra's statements.

"The prime minister has made it very clear that this subject has not come up in the government," said Miri Eisin.

Report: Egyptian official says prisoner swap talks are failing
Negotiations for an Israeli and Palestinian prisoner exchange are yielding no results, an senior Egyptian official told the London-based Arabic daily Al-Hayat on Monday.

He said the two sides have still not agreed on which particular Palestinian prisoners will be released in exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, adding that neither side is willing to ease its terms.

Shalit's father, Noam Shalit, will meet with Hamas and Fatah officials in the Gaza Strip in the coming days, Al-Hayat reported.

Shalit will ask the Palestinian officials to permit him to visit his son in the place he is being held, according to the report. Shalit refused to elaborate on the report.

"I plan to respond to these things, whether I am planning this or something else," he said.

Some three weeks ago, Shalit visited Palestinian civilians wounded in a botched artillery bombardment of the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, which killed 19 civilians.

Shalit said at the time that he was making the visit in order to express sympathy for those wounded in the terrible tragedy that had befallen them, and to wish them a speedy recovery.

During the visit, he also criticized the government for what he called insufficient efforts to secure his son's release.