Cairo  - Hamas official Mohamed Nasr said on Saturday the militant group had no time frame for reaching a truce with Israel.

"A truce could be announced after an hour or after tomorrow," Nasr told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dpa in a phone interview.

Earlier reports from Egypt stated that a truce could be reached on Saturday. Nasr, who is part of a Hamas delegation in Egypt, said his group would not link any truce to the fate of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was captured by Hamas in 2007.

A statement from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office on Saturday said Israel would not reach any deal with Hamas before Shalit was freed.

Taher al-Nono, another Hamas member in Cairo, said in an interview with broadcaster al-Arabyia that a truce and Shalit's release are two separate issues.

"A truce has to do with a ceasefire, a lifting the Gaza blockade, while Shalit has to do with the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israel," Al-Nono said. (dpa)