Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed yesterday not to release several high-profile Palestinian prisoners in exchange for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

"We will not agree to release... terror masterminds and never agree to the return of dangerous terrorists to the West Bank," Mr Netanyahu told members of his Likud party in Parliament, according to officials at the meeting.

Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas have been locked in arduous indirect negotiations for the release of Mr Shalit.

The Jewish state has reportedly agreed to release about 450 prisoners demanded by Hamas but baulked at several who were behind particularly bloody attacks.

Mr Netanyahu was apparently referring to Marwan Barghuti, the popular Palestinian leader who Israel holds responsible for instigating the 2000 outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.

Mr Barghuti, who was elected to the governing body of the secular Fatah party of Western-backed Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in August, is currently serving five life sentences for murder and his role in the intifada.

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