Jackson to ask Hizbollah for evidence on Israelis

BEIRUT, Sep 3 (Reuters) US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said today that the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah could help bring about a prisoner swap with Israel if it gave evidence that its two Israeli captives are alive.

Jackson, a Democrat who has helped arrange several prisoner exchanges over the years, returned to Beirut late yesterday after talks in Israel with Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Ofer Dekel, Israel's chief negotiator on the prisoners.

He told Reuters he would have another meeting tomorrow with a representative of Hizbollah, which captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12 and said it wanted to exchange them for Lebanese and Arabs in Israeli prisons.

''The Israelis want some physical evidence, some verification, some sign of life,'' he told Reuters.

''That could break the deadlock and I think we are very close,'' he added in a telephone interview.

He said the evidence could come in the form of a signature or a videotape of the Israeli soldiers.

Hizbollah had been reluctant to provide a sign and had brought up in talks its demands that Israel withdraw its troops from south Lebanon and end the blockade it imposed on Lebanon at the start of a one-month war, he said.

''I will make an appeal to Hizbollah to see the advantage if the prisoners were released, or even some evidence (that the Israelis are alive and well),'' he added.

Jackson, a former presidential candidate, criticised the administration of President George W. Bush for its reluctance to talk to Syria and deal with Hizbollah, which the State Department has on its list of terrorist groups.

''This really exposes the limitations of a no-talk policy,'' he said. ''Assad (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) is too big a player to be ignored.'' Reuters AB GC002