Israel has formally signed an agreement with Lebanese Islamic resistance movement Hezbollah to exchange prisoners.

An Israeli government spokesman said the deal had been signed “in the presence of a UN representative”.
Under the deal, two Israeli soldiers -- seized in a 2006 raid and believed to be dead -- will be handed over.
The bodies of fighters killed during years of conflict between the two sides will also be handed over by Israel, which has already begun exhuming them.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he believes the pair are dead. Hezbollah has not confirmed that.
Military officials have indicated that the exchange, agreed by the cabinet a week ago, may take place next week.
Samir Qantar will be among the five Lebanese prisoners handed over by Israel. Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said last week that the group would also provide information on missing Israeli airman Ron Arad.
Mr. Arad has been missing since he bailed out of his plane over Lebanon in 1986 and was captured by resistance fighters.
His fate is unknown and has been the subject of much speculation in Israel over the past two decades.
But a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Mark Regev, said on Monday that Israel had not yet received the promised report on Mr. Arad's fate.
“We are waiting for it,” he said. “When we receive it, the government will discuss further moves.”
Another Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, remains a prisoner of the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement Hamas.
(Source: BBC)-