JERUSALEM (AFP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Sunday to bring back a soldier captured by Gaza militants more than two years ago, following a prisoner exchange with the Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

"We've promised the Shalit family in our name to do everything to bring Gilad Shalit home alive and in good health as quickly as possible. Let me tell you it is not easy," Olmert told a weekly cabinet meeting.

"I believe Gilad Shalit will return home safe and sound. We will not rest and not stop until we get him back," he added.

The Islamist Hamas movement has demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit, who was captured in a deadly cross-border raid by Gaza militants in June 2006.

Shalit's captors have over the past two years released several letters written by the 21-year-old corporal in captivity, where he said his health was deteriorating.

On Wednesday, Israel handed over five Lebanese prisoners to Hezbollah in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured in a similar raid that sparked the 34-day Lebanon war in July 2006.

The two soldiers' fate was unknown until they appeared at the border in two black coffins, and the prisoner exchange was widely criticised in Israel because it included the release of Samir Kuntar, convicted of the 1979 murder of three civilians, including a little girl.

A senior Israeli government official said Olmert will hold a series of talks with Defence Minister Ehud Barak and other senior security officials to discuss the negotiations for Shalit's release.

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