Hamas: Shalit deal won't remain on table forever

Hamas official Ayman Taha on Sunday warned that negotiations over a prisoner swap in exchange for abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit "would not remain open forever."

"We can't promise that the Shalit case will stay open forever," he told Haaretz correspondent Jack Khoury in an interview aired on the Nazareth-based radio station Al-Shams.

"It's possible that we will announce the end of negotiations and the freezing of all contacts until further notice, and Shalit's fate will remain unknown," he added. "We have no intention of changing our demands."

Taha denied reports of progress in the negotiations for Shalit, who has been in Palestinian captivity since he was abducted in a 2006 cross-border raid from the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas official said that speculations of progress were unsubstantiated. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government has already completed its term, he said, adding that there was no chance for a deal to be secured before the next coalition took its place.

Cabinet secretary Ovad Yehezkel, an official close to Olmert, also said earlier Sunday that a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas was all but impossible before the current government steps down.

Yehezkel told Army Radio that contacts were ongoing, but that he assumed matters would have to wait for the new government to be sworn in this week.

Israel and Hamas are discussing a deal that would see hundreds of Palestinian prisoners freed in return for Shalit.

Egyptian-mediated talks broke down earlier this month as Israel said it couldn't agree to the list of militants Hamas wants freed, including some implicated in killing Israelis in bomb attacks.

Last week, Olmert's top negotiator Ofer Dekel told Egyptian mediators that Israel would agree to resume the negotiations only if Hamas agrees to submit a new list of prisoners for Israel's consideration. On Sunday, Yehezkel announced that Hamas had yet to submit a new list, and therefore talks have not resumed.

Egyptian sources echoed Yehzkel's sentiments on Saturday, saying that "there is no longer time to reach an agreement during the term of the incumbent government, but maybe one will be reached with the government led by Benjamin Netanyahu."

Israel says it has agreed to release 325 of the 450 prisoners Hamas has demanded by name, but is unwilling to release the remaining 125. It is therefore insisting that Hamas present a new list of names from which Jerusalem could choose the remaining 125 to round out the total, to which it has already agreed.