Jerusalem - Any Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Hamas must include the release of an Israeli soldier snatched in a cross-0boder raid nearly 23 months ago, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was quoted in the Israel media as saying Monday.

Meeting Egyptian security chief Omar Suleiman, who arrived in Jerusalem, Olmert added that in addition to the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, any ceasefire with the militant Islamic group must also put an end to arms smuggling across the Egytpian border with the Gaza Strip.

Shalit was taken in an early-morning raid launched form the Gaza Strip on June 25 2006. Efforts to negotiate his release have so been unsuccessful.

Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who also met with the Egyptian envoy on Monday, said Israel would launch a massive operation in the Gaza Strip if the militants groups there did not halt their continuous rocket fire at southern Israel.

Egypt has been attempting to mediate a truce between the militants groups in the Strip led by Hamas, who launch mortars and improvised missiles at Israel from the Strip, and Israel, which retaliates with air and ground strikes on the salient. (dpa)