Cairo  - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on Sunday evening on route to Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, amid speculation that the two men would discuss a deal to free Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

His visit follows talks in Jerusalem Sunday between US envoy George Mitchell and Israeli President Shimon Peres, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, as part of what White House officials have promised will be a new push for a Middle East peace plan this month.

Addressing a cabinet meeting ahead of his departure, Netanyahu said he hoped the gaps between the sides preventing a renewal of peace talks could be narrowed, "perhaps even bridged, in order to restart the diplomatic process."

Israeli and Egyptian analysts however said efforts to secure the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier capture by the militant Palestinian Hamas movement in 2006, would likely dominate the talks between Netanyahu and Mubarak.

Reports in the Egyptian and Israeli press that exiled Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal would also be in Cairo Sunday for talks with Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman fuelled that speculation.

A spokesman from Meshaal's office would not confirm the reports, saying only that the Hamas leader would travel to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage on Tuesday.

Meshaal was in Cairo last week for talks with the Egyptians about a deal with Hamas to release Shalit.

"Netanyahu's visit to Cairo, so soon after Meshaal's, means something significant will be happening soon," Imad Gad, an Israel expert at Cairo's government-funded al-Ahram Centre Strategic and Political Studies, told the German Press Agency dpa.

"But, his visit should not be blown out of proportion. It will have nothing to do with the peace process, but more likely with the Shalit deal," he added.

The independent Egyptian daily al-Shuruq quoted unnamed diplomatic sources as saying that Netanyahu would discuss a deal to free Shalit, as well as Egypt's efforts to curb smuggling from Sinai to the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu would also push Cairo to convince Abbas "to gradually start peace talks with Israel, and in return, Israel will gradually halt building new settlements," al-Shuruq's source said.

Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel, has been an active mediator in resolving the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. (dpa)