Israel's cabinet has approved the freeing of 250 Palestinian prisoners in a move aimed at boosting moderate president Mahmud Abbas in his battle for authority with Islamist Hamas.
The cabinet passed the measure, which applies only to prisoners who are members of Mr Abbas's Fatah party, by a vote of 18 to seven, a senior government official said.

The release was promised by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during a Mideast summit in Egypt in late June as a goodwill gesture to Mr Abbas, whom Israel would like to bolster after security forces loyal to the moderate leader were overrun in Gaza by militants from Hamas.



Authorities are expected within days to draw up a final list of the names, which will have to be approved by Mr Olmert.

None of the prisoners released will have "blood on their hands,'' meaning implication in attacks that have killed Israelis, Mr Olmert said at the start of the cabinet meeting.

"We are not doing this gesture out of some illusion that through it, we will change the face of the Middle East,'' he said.



"But we are doing it out of hope that we can use any means possible to strengthen moderate elements in the Palestinian Authority, to encourage them to move in a direction that could allow conditions to begin real talks,'' he said.



Mr Abbas's new Western-backed emergency cabinet welcomed the move as a "good start.''

"We hope that all prisoners will be freed and our government will work toward this aim,'' information and justice minister Riyad al-Malki said.

"We will continue our pressure on the Israeli government to release all the prisoners.''

Mr Olmert on Saturday had rejected a preliminary list of names to be released drawn up by the Shin Beth internal security agency and the justice ministry, as the sentences of several of the people on it were due to end soon anyway.

"The prime minister believed the release would not only not help Abbas, but would actually be seen as a slap in the face,'' a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

Mr Olmert has ordered a new list drawn up, with prisoners on it having at least a third of their sentence left to serve.

They are all to be members of secular Fatah and "men who can reinforce the moderates among the Palestinians,'' government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said.



Once the final list of names is approved, it will be made public and the actual release will occur at least 48 hours after the publication, to allow for any appeals before the high court, Ms Eisin said.



Israel currently holds more than 11,000 Palestinian prisoners, just over half of them having been convicted of an offence and more than 800 of them being held without charge.

The Jewish state has sought to boost Mr Abbas after Hamas militants overran security forces loyal to him in Gaza on June 15, effectively splitting the Palestinians into two separate entities, with the moderate Mr Abbas in charge of occupied West Bank and the radical Hamas controlling the Gaza Strip.



As part of these measures, the Jewish state has also transferred 118 million dollars of Palestinian custom duties that it has withheld ever since Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel, came to power more than a year ago.



The unblocked funds last week allowed Mr Abbas's government headed by respected economist Salam Fayyad to pay civil servants their full monthly salaries for the first time in more than a year.