OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, September 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Israel is to release about 400 Palestinian and Arab detainees next week as part of a long-awaited prisoner exchange deal with the Lebanese Hezbollah group, according to news reports Tuesday, September 23.

Citing an "informed Palestinian source", Palestinian daily Al-Quds said the German-mediated exchange would "probably" take place after the end of Jewish New Year festivities this weekend.

Around 185 Lebanese, Syrian and Jordanian prisoners would be released as part of the deal while the rest would be Palestinian, said the report, carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"All the Palestinian factions have presented (to Hezbollah) lists with names of prisoners they want to be released," the source added.

According to the report, Marwan Barghuti, the Secretary of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement in the West Bank, and senior Hamas official Sheikh Hassan Yussef, are among the names on the list.

However, Israel's Interior Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi denied Barghuti would be part of any exchange deal.

"He will stay in prison for dozens of years," he told the Israeli public radio about Barghuti.

Palestinian lawyer Fadwa, wife of Barghuti, told Al-Jazeera TV late Monday she has not received any official confirmation on her husband’s imminent release.

Citing her own private channels, she underlined, however, that Barghuti will be released as part of the swap.

The Ramallah-based Al-Ayyam newspaper, however, said it was "nearly certain" Barghuti and Yussef would be among those released.

Barghuti, 44, seen by many as the inspiration behind Al-Aqsa Intifada that broke out in September 2000, was arrested by the Israeli army in April 2002 and brought before an Israeli court for the first time last September.

Israel accuses him of involvement in killing 26 Israelis and "heading a terror organization" but his appearances in the Tel Aviv district court have so far focused on legal technicalities. No evidence has yet been produced against him.

Al-Ayyam, citing Arab and Palestinian sources, said the exchange would take place "in the coming days".

Issa Qaraqa, who heads a Bethlehem-based prisoners club, told AFP that Israel has pledged during negotiations not to re-arrest released Palestinians over the same charges and not to expel them from the occupied territories.

Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Monday, September 22, there was "great hope" of a deal "soon", while Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said last week he believed Hezbollah was "serious" about reaching an agreement on prisoners.

Israeli sources said that reserve general Ilan Biran was due to hold talks in Germany Tuesday with special mediator Ernst Urlau about the terms of an eventual deal.

While some Israeli commentators have welcomed the prospect of an impending deal, others say it will only serve to bolster what they termed "hardliners in the region".

"The incipient prisoner swap deal ... will turn (Hezbollah leader) Nasrallah into the most admired Arab leader in the region," Ben Caspit of the Maariv daily wrote Tuesday.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas) tried to make peace with us. That's the whole difference."

The deal was the first tangible progress of the German efforts to negotiate a deal since previous successful mediations in 1996 and 1998 led to a series of swaps.

In October 2000, Hezbollah captured three Israeli soldiers - whom Israel believes are dead - in a Lebanese border area, occupied by Israel.

They also seized Elhanan Tannenbaum, a reservist colonel Hezbollah says was an intelligence agent while Israel claims he is a "businessman".

For its part, Israel is said to be holding 16 Lebanese, including two senior Islamic figures, though Lebanese media Monday published a list of 19.

Hezbollah was instrumental in the resistance fight that booted out in May 2000 Israeli occupation troop from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

Israel released about 350 Palestinian prisoners earlier this year in a move designed to bolster the position of then Palestinian Premier Mahmud Abbas.

However, the figures fell much below Palestinians’ demands who were pushing for the release of all their estimated 6,000 detainees.