Geneva - The International Committee of the Red Cross demanded Thursday that it be allowed to visit an Israeli soldier being detained in the Gaza Strip since June
2006.

Since he was captured in a cross-border raid, Gilad Shalit has not met with a representative of the ICRC, as he is entitled to under international law, the organization said in a statement.

Former US president Jimmy Carter handed over this week to the Hamas authorities in the coastal enclave, a letter from Shalit's family to him.

The Islamist group said it would consider giving it to the soldier if the move helped achieve an exchange deal with Israel for some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners the Jewish State is holding.

The letter "cannot replace the regular and unconditional contacts with his family that Gilad Shalit is entitled to under international humanitarian law," Beatrice Megevand- Roggo, a senior ICRC official in the Middle East, said.

"The ICRC regrets that in his case political considerations are judged more important than the simple humanitarian gesture of allowing a captive to be in touch with his family after three years of separation," Roggo said.

Israel has also been criticized by the Red Cross for not allowing families from Gaza to visit their relatives in Israeli prisons. Relatives of about 900 detainees have been without face-to-face contact since June 2007, when Israel unilaterally canceled the ICRC visitation programme.

In the summer of 2007, Hamas took over the Gaza Strip, ousting the rival Fatah party, which has more secular-leanings.(dpa)