Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert planned to convene his cabinet Tuesday morning to get final authorization for a prisoner exchange deal with Lebanon's Hezbollah, scheduled for the next day.

A majority of ministers was expected to vote in favour of the deal in the cabinet session, to begin at 10 am (0800 GMT), despite fierce opposition by Israel's Shin Bet internal security and Mossad intelligence organizations.

The Shin Bet and Mossad said a report submitted by Hezbollah on missing Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, was unsatisfactory and inconclusive.

In the report, a final version of which was handed over to Israel over the weekend, Hezbollah details its - failed - efforts to shed light on Arad's fate. The version contained appendices with additional answers demanded by Israel, including the names of people interviewed by Hezbollah who were involved in keeping Arad captive before he disappeared several years after falling into their hands.

The Shin Bet and Mossad oppose the release of Samir Kuntar, the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel, because they fear it would mean giving up a last chance to obtain conclusive information on Arad in exchange for his freedom.

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, however, said earlier this week that Israel had a "moral obligation" to retrieve its two missing soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, whose July 2006 abduction in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah had sparked a monthlong war that failed to secure their release.

Under the deal, Israel is to hand over the bodies of 199 Lebanese fighters and militants, exhumed from an anonymous cemetery in the north of the country, and Hezbollah is to hand over Regev and Goldwasser, both of whom are also widely believed to be dead.

The exchange is expected to start at the Israel-Lebanon border crossing of Rosh ha'Nikra/Naquora at 9 am (0700 GMT) Wednesday under the auspices of the Red Cross.

Only after the two soldiers are identified, Israel would hand over the five Lebanese prisoners it is to free, including Kuntar and four Hezbollah fighters captured in the 2006 war. (dpa)