Gaza’s Hamas rulers are “very eager” to resume talks with Israel over a prisoner exchange which could see captured soldier Gilad Shalit being freed, former US president Jimmy Carter said yesterday.

“They let us know... they are very eager to proceed,” Mr Carter told reporters in Jerusalem several days after a delegation of former world statesmen, known as The Elders, met Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip.

“They are very glad that the German negotiator has been back on the scene lately and that Israeli Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu has made some positive statements about a prisoner exchange.”

Mr Carter, who joined the Elders on the Syrian leg of their regional tour where he met Hamas’ exiled leadership, said he had urged the group “to do everything they could to expedite the exchange of prisoners” so Mr Shalit could return home.

“They maintained that they are very eager to have a swap but they are demanding the release of some prisoners that are not acceptable to the Israeli negotiators,” he said.

Mr Netanyahu on Sunday said that talks aimed at releasing Mr Shalit had resumed after a hiatus of nearly a year.

The radical Islamist group and other Palestinian militants captured Mr Shalit, now 24, in a deadly cross-border raid in June 2006 and have demanded hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including top militants, in exchange for his release.

There was also an ongoing disagreement over where they would be allowed to live, Mr Carter said.

“They strongly oppose the proposal that Israel has made, particularly the deportation of some of the prisoners who would be released.

“They cannot stay in Gaza, they can’t stay in the West Bank, they can’t stay in east Jerusalem if they are released from Israeli prisons – that is a handicap,” he said.