A religious Israeli cabinet minister has offered to meet the leadership of Palestinian Hamas to ask for the release of a soldier held in Gaza, his spokesman said on Friday, a move which would break with government policy.

He said Industry and Trade Minister Eli Yishai passed the proposal to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who came to Israel this week ahead of a visit to Syria where he was expected to hold talks with exiled Hamas supreme leader Khaled Meshaal. Gunmen abducted tank crewman Gilad Shalit to the Gaza Strip in June 2006.

Islamist Hamas, which rules Gaza, has demanded through Egyptian mediators that Israel free hundreds of jailed Palestinians in exchange for Shalit. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has balked at the scope of the prisoner release roster.

Yishai spokesman Roei Lachmanovich quoted him as telling Carter he "would be happy to meet anyone relevant -- including Meshaal" to appeal for freedom for Shalit as well as two Israeli soldiers seized by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in July 2006.

A member of Carter's delegation predicted he would pass on Yishai's message during an unannounced meeting with Meshaal due in Damascus later on Friday. "That's what he (Carter) came here for," the delegation member said, on condition of anonymity. A spokesman for Carter declined to comment on whether he would meet Meshaal.

Olmert refuses to talk directly to Hamas, whose charter calls for the Jewish state's destruction, and the premier declined to see Carter -- a snub widely perceived as signalling displeasure at the ex-president's planned talks with Meshaal. Olmert's office had no immediate comment on Yishai's initiative.

Another cabinet minister, Rafi Eitan, voiced doubt that Yishai would be allowed to negotiate a prisoner deal alone. "Every cabinet minister has to keep in line with the government resolutions," Eitan told Israel Radio. "Negotiations, war, intelligence -- all of these systems, whether military or political, must work hand-in-hand in a country like ours."