Hizbollah insists on prisoner exchange with Israel

BEIRUT, Aug 30 (Reuters) Hizbollah will only release two captured Israeli soldiers as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel, a Hizbollah government minister said today.

''There is no unconditional release. It is not feasible,'' Lebanese Energy Minister Mohammed Fneish told a news conference.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who held separate talks with Fneish in Beirut on Monday, had called for the two Israelis to be handed over to the Lebanese government or a third party, under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The capture of the two soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12 sparked a five-week Israeli military campaign in Lebanon that was halted by a UN truce on August. 14.

The UN resolution that ordered the truce calls for the release of the soldiers and for finding a solution to the issue of Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails.

''Since the resistance captured the two Israeli soldiers, (Hizbollah's) position was clear,'' Fneish said. ''The goal of this operation was to conduct indirect negotiations and a swap.

''This was the position before the (Israeli) aggression and it's only natural to reinforce it after the aggression.'' REUTERS AKJ PM2108