Beirut - The ongoing German-mediated prisoner exchange between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah has registered "some progress and removed some of the obstacles which have previously delayed the swap," a western diplomatic source said Monday.

"The family has been informed of some positive developments within the next 30 days regarding my brother as well as all the other prisoners held in Israel," Bassam Kantar, brother of Samir Kantar, the longest-held Arab prisoner, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Samir Kantar, 45, was sentenced to 542 years in prison in 1980 for killing an Israeli man and his four-year-old daughter in an attack in the Israeli resort of Nahariya.

His fate has often been linked to the issue of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad, who was captured after his plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. The whereabouts of Arad is still unknown.

"All I can say is that the German mediators have been successful in removing some of the prevailing obstacles which registered some progress in the file on prisoners," a Western diplomatic source close to the negotiations told dpa in Beirut.

"I think some of the Hezbollah leaders will make it official and will speak about this progress," said the diplomat.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to speak later Monday to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the "resistance and the liberation of south Lebanon."

Israel withdrew unilaterally from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation on May 23-24, 2000.

According to Lebanese media reports one of the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jail Nessim Nisr was expected to be released soon.

The last prisoner exchange between the Shiite militant group and Israel took place in October, with Hezbollah handing over the remains of one Israeli in exchange for the bodies of two militants and a prisoner.

It was the first such swap in nearly four years and was the result of German and UN mediation. (dpa)