Olmert to Hamas: I'm best chance for prisoner deal

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged Hamas Wednesday to clinch a prisoner exchange with Israel before he leaves office, saying his successor would be less willing to free jailed Palestinians.

Olmert, whose centrist government is in a caretaker capacity while hawkish prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu tries to form a new coalition, has stepped up efforts to recover Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held in the Gaza Strip since 2006.

Islamist Hamas, which rules Gaza and withstood a devastating Israeli assault in January, wants 1,400 Palestinian prisoners -- including militant leaders -- to go free in exchange for Shalit.

Israel long balked at a lopsided swap but has recently signaled flexibility in Egyptian-brokered talks. Diplomats have said Israel could release around 1,000 prisoners.

"Even Hamas, though it's an inhuman group in terms of its behavior, and violent and brutal and murderous and totally insensitive to the most basic norms that we believe in, ultimately wants to free its prisoners," Olmert told Israel's Channel Two television.

"And it knows that if there is a chance of reaching a settlement, it's during my tenure," he said.

"I am convinced that the prime minister who succeeds me will do everything in his power to free Gilad Shalit. I fear that doing what I am willing to do would be difficult for him, because of the makeup of the (political) forces supporting him."

He refused to say how many prisoners he might agree to free.

Hamas had no immediate comment on Olmert's overture.

A February 10 election to choose Olmert's successor gave his Kadima party, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the biggest number of seats in parliament. But it also created a majority bloc of right-wing factions, leading President Shimon Peres to task Netanyahu with forming a new government.

Netanyahu, a former premier who heads the opposition Likud party, has so far failed to lure Livni or Defense Minister Ehud Barak of the center-left Labor party into a coalition. Likud negotiators opened talks with rightist parties Wednesday.

(Writing by Dan Williams, Editing by Alison Williams)