Cairo - Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak was scheduled to arrive in Cairo on Sunday for talks with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak and Egypt's top defence and intelligence officials.

The talks follow "a major development" in negotiations to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas near the Israel-Gaza border nearly three years ago, the regional daily al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Saturday, citing an unnamed Israeli source.

The source said "signs of seriousness" began to appear in the negotiations following Egyptian pressure on Hamas and Israel.

In an interview on Israeli television Saturday night, Shalit's father Noam said former prime minister Ehud Olmert had not done enough to secure Shalit's release.

"I know that he didn't make every effort," the soldier's father said, days before the three-year anniversary of Shalit's 25 June capture.

Former US president Jimmy Carter last week conveyed a message from Shalit's family to Hamas political leaders in Damascus.

Israeli officials have said they would consider opening the borders of the Gaza Strip if Shalit were released in a prisoner swap.

Barak's visit comes a week after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu outlined his government's policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an address billed as a reply to US President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world from Cairo a week before.

Soon after that speech, Mubarak told Egyptian special forces that Netanyahu's "call to recognize Israel as a Jewish state makes the situation more complicated and aborts the chances for peace."

By contrast, Mubarak called Obama's speech in Cairo "seminal" and "a turning point in America's relationship with the Muslim world," in an article published in Friday's Wall Street Journal.

"The priority should be to resolve the permanent borders of a sovereign and territorially contiguous Palestinian state, based on the 1967 lines, as this would unlock most of the other permanent status issues, including settlements, security, water and Jerusalem," Mubarak wrote.(dpa)