"The prime minister will personally appoint a person who would take care of the issue," Livni said. (Reuters)

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — After a failed month-long war that cost Israel many soldiers and scores of military vehicles, Ehud Olmert's government is taking the channel Hizbullah described from the very beginning as the only way to secure the release of two soldiers taken prisoner by the Lebanese resistance; negotiations.

"We will have to enter a process which means negotiations" Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a news conference after the cabinet voted to approve a UN resolution on a cessation of hostilities, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"The Israeli government does not intend to let go of the issue," she said when asked about the fate of the two soldiers.

"The prime minister will personally appoint a person who would take care of the issue."

This marks the first time that an Israeli official publicly said they would negotiate for the release of the pair.

Previously Israel had demanded an unconditional release for the servicemen.

The two soldiers were seized by Hizbullah fighters in a cross-border operation on July 12 during which eight other servicemen were killed.

Since day one Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah said the one and only way to free the Israeli soldiers would be through indirect talks and the release of Lebanese detainees in Israeli jails, including Samir Kantar, in prison since 1979.

Unsettled

Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, the only member of the Israeli cabinet who did not vote to accept the UN resolution, said the issue of the two soldiers partly motivated his decision.

"We cannot decide on the return of our soldiers and then have a ceasefire that does not refer to the issue," he said.

"The resolution doesn't state clearly that Hizbullah should be dismantled and therefore it will not be disarmed," Mofaz said.

A senior diplomatic source told Israel's Haaretz daily said Israel has no information on the fate of Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser, but it is assumed they are still alive.

The source said the army has launched high-risk operations to obtain information on the soldiers, but they were all unsuccessful.

Hizbullah has initially proposed swapping the two soldiers for Lebanese detainees in Israeli jails but after a series of Israeli crimes against civilians, parliament speaker Nabih Berri said the conditions have changes, without elaborating.

High on the list of Hizbullah's demands would be the release of Lebanon's longest-serving prisoner Samir Kantar, in prison since 1979.

Israel has long linked his release to receiving credible proof regarding the fate of its missing airman Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

In 2004, Hizbullah and Israel reached a landmark prisoner swap agreement following nearly three years of on-again and off-again negotiations.

Under the agreement, Israel released around 400 Palestinians, 23 Lebanese, five Syrians, three Moroccans, three Sudanese, a Libyan national and a German in exchange for the release of Israeli businessman Elhanan Tannenbaum and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers.

Israel also returned the corpses of 59 Lebanese nationals killed in action.