Israel to begin releasing Palestinian prisoners

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will release about 430 Palestinian prisoners on Monday in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas after a U.S.-sponsored conference last week on Palestinian statehood, Israeli officials said.

The prisoners, most of whom belong to Abbas's secular Fatah faction, will be bussed from a desert prison at around 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) to Israel's boundaries with the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Prisons Service spokeswoman said.

Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched formal peace talks at the Annapolis, Maryland, conference, and the prisoner release is meant to strengthen the Palestinian leader against Hamas Islamists who seized the Gaza Strip in June.

Hamas has rejected the peace moves with Israel.

The freeing of prisoners is highly emotive for Palestinians, who see their nearly 11,000 brethren held in Israeli jails as fighters against foreign occupation. Many Israelis fear that such amnesties encourage Palestinian militants to strike again.

(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Stephen Weeks)