U.N. Envoy Confers in Israel on Hostage Deal

A U.N. envoy visited Israel last week for talks on a possible hostage swap in the Middle East, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Saturday.

He said that Giandomenico Picco, a personal representative of U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, had already left Israel. The spokesman declined to give further details.

A Defense Ministry spokesman said Israel still has no news of its seven servicemen missing in Lebanon.

Israel has demanded proof of the fate of the men before considering a deal involving about 400 Arabs it holds for the release of Westerners and Israelis held by kidnap groups in Lebanon.

The United Nations has been trying to negotiate an exchange since the release of British hostage John McCarthy and American Edward A. Tracy by kidnapers in Lebanon earlier this month.

In Iran, meanwhile, President Hashemi Rafsanjani accused the United States and Israel of delaying the planned prisoner swap and said the West does not want the hostage issue settled.

He said no reciprocal goodwill gesture followed the release of McCarthy and Tracy.

Five Americans, two Britons and two Germans are held in Lebanon by groups close to the pro-Iranian Hezbollah (Party of God).

Israel and its militia ally in south Lebanon hold 300 to 400 prisoners whose release is sought by Hezbollah.

Israel Television said that while he was in Israel, Picco had talks with the Israeli team that met Perez de Cuellar in Geneva earlier this month--hostage negotiators Uri Lubrani, Ori Slonim and Yohanan Bein.

The report said that Picco apparently intended to visit Syria and Iran after leaving Israel.

In Beirut, the office of the highest Shiite Muslim leader in Lebanon said that reports quoting him as saying the seven missing Israelis were dead were not accurate.

The office of Sheik Mohammed Mehdi Shamseddine, the ranking official on the Shiite Supreme Council, said he does not know which of the seven are alive or dead and urged that details be made public so that the hostage issue can be resolved.