Tel Aviv - Israel has begun concrete preparations for the prisoners swap with Lebanon's militant Hezbollah movement, expected to take place some time next week.

The Israeli military was to dig up Monday the bodies of some 190 Hezbollah fighters killed in battles with Israel. Bulldozers have already begun clearing vegetation at Israel's "cemetary for fallen enemy soldiers," in the north of the country. The Israeli army on Sunday declared the burial site, which contains numbered, anonymous graves, a "closed military zone," to enable the preparations.

Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel is to return Monday from a 24-hour visit to Germany, where he met with the United Nations-appointed German mediator of the swap, Gerhard Conrad, who submitted a written report to him from Hezbollah on missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986.

Israel, in return, is handing over information on four Iranian diplomats who disappeared in Lebanon in 1982. The exchange of information is the first phase of the three-phase deal, which the Israeli cabinet approved Sunday last week after a lengthy, stormy debate.

The second phase, the actual swap, is expected some time next week. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said last week the actual prisoners swap will take place around July 15. Israeli officials too have told local media that the swap is likely to happen early or mid-next week.

Under the exchange, Israel is to free Samir Kuntar, its longest-held Lebanese prisoner, as well as four Hezbollah fighters captured in the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It will also hand over the some 190 bodies of Hezbollah fighters.

Hezbollah, for its part, is to hand over two Israeli reserve soldiers snatched in a July 2006 cross-border raid which had sparked the month-long war. The two soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, are believed to be dead. Hezbollah is also to hand over body parts of other Israeli soldiers killed in fighting in Lebanon.

The exchange is to take place via the Red Cross at the northern Israeli border crossing with Lebanon of Rosh Hanikra.

Kuntar is serving multiple life sentences for leading a 1979 infiltration and hostage taking, in which a father, his four-year-old daughter and two Israeli policemen were killed.

Yoram Shahar, the brother of one of the policemen who was killed, said Monday he would appeal to Israel's Highest Court of Justice against the release of Kuntar.

He warned the exchange deal would encourage militant organizations to take new hostages in the future.

"Today's deal is tomorrow's kidnapping," he told Israel Radio. (dpa)