Mubarak: Hamas has agreed to release Shalit

Palestinian kidnappers of Cpl. Gilad Shalit have agreed to his conditional release, but Israel has not yet accepted their terms, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in remarks published Friday. In an interview with Egypt's leading pro-government newspaper, Al-Ahram, Mubarak said, "Egyptian contacts with several Hamas leaders resulted in preliminary, positive results in the form of a conditional agreement to hand over the Israeli soldier as soon as possible to avoid an escalation. "But agreement on this has not yet been reached with the Israeli side," Mubarak said. The president said he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "not to hurry" the military offensive in Gaza, but to "give additional time to find a peaceful solution to the problem of the kidnapped soldier."