Israel-Hezbollah swap 'this week'

Eldad Regev (left) and Ehud Goldwasser were captured in 2006

A planned prisoner exchange between Israel and Hezbollah will take place on Wednesday, Israeli officials say.

Israel will release five Lebanese prisoners in exchange for two Israeli soldiers seized in a cross-border raid that triggered a 33-day war in 2006.

The condition of the two Israeli soldiers is not known, but it is widely believed that they are dead.

The Lebanese prisoners due to be freed include Samir Qantar, in jail since 1979 for a deadly guerrilla raid.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has described Qantar as the last bargaining chip for word on the fate of Ron Arad.

The Israeli air force navigator disappeared after bailing out of his craft during a 1986 bombing run on Lebanon in 1986.

Under the prisoner-swap arrangement, Hezbollah handed over documents about the navigator, including two previously unseen photographs, on Saturday.

The photographs were passed on to his family along with letters that were reportedly written several years ago, but Israeli authorities said they provided no new information about his wellbeing.

In the exchange - the fruit of two years of delicate German mediation - Israel is also expected to hand over the bodies of 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters killed while infiltrating northern Israel.

Hezbollah is to return the body parts of Israeli soldiers killed in south Lebanon in 2006.

The capture of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev triggered Israel's offensive against Hezbollah in mid-2006.