Egypt has been working for mediating a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian groups and is exerting more efforts in this regard, an Egyptian official source said on Thursday.

Egypt has intensified its efforts in the past few days for the indirect talks between Israel and Palestinian groups, the state MENA news agency quoted the anonymous source as saying.

According to earlier reports, an Egyptian official arrived in Israel on Tuesday for talks on the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

The Egyptian envoy left Israel on Wednesday and headed to Cairo to brief his administration on the outcomes. He will also inform Hamas about the results of his talks with the Israeli officials.

A senior Palestinian official said on Thursday, on condition of anonymity, that a progress has been made on the case of releasing Shalit in exchange for a number of Palestinian prisoners.

The prisoners swap talks came to a standstill after Israel rejected Hamas' demand to select the names of the first 450 Palestinian prisoners, out of more than 1,000 who would be freed in exchange for the Israeli corporal.

Shalit was kidnapped by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

The talks of prisoners' swap has been one of the pending issues that delaying the Egyptian-hosted indirect talks for a durable truce deal between Israel and Palestinian groups after a 22-day Israeli military operation in Gaza.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2009)