Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Israel Thursday of aborting a deal that almost ended the three-year captivity in Gaza of soldier Gilad Shalit. In an interview to be published in Yediot Acharonot on Friday, Mubarak said that Shalit was about to be transferred to Egyptian safekeeping when Israel altered its terms for the envisaged prisoner swap.

In the interview, which was carried by Egypt's official MENA news agency on Thursday evening, the Egyptian president said, "We were on the verge of receiving Shalit from Hamas and of putting him with us until you released some Palestinian (prisoners)." He added, "You kept saying we'll release this one but not that one and the matter was complicated when you introduced new elements." Mubarak did not say when the deal was supposed to take place.