**The leader of the Palestinian faction Hamas has visited Egypt for talks with mediators brokering a reconciliation with political rivals Fatah.**Khaled Meshaal travelled from Syria - where he lives in exile - for the talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who leads Fatah, was also in Cairo.
The visit has also fuelled speculation of a possible Israel-Hamas prisoner swap, which would include captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The BBC’s Yolande Knell, in Cairo, says Khaled Meshaal arrived with a top-level Hamas delegation for the meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
The meeting comes ahead of a new round of talks with the Fatah movement on forming a Palestinian unity government due to begin later this month.
Hamas and Fatah have been in dispute since a split ended in Hamas violently seizing control of the Gaza Strip in May 2007.
Egyptian officials have long served as mediators and in recent weeks, German diplomats have joined negotiations.
Shalit discussed
The mediators have also tried to broker a prisoner-swap between Israel and Hamas that would include Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, seized in a Palestinian raid in June 2006.
“Concerning Shalit, as you know there is some development as a result of the German mediation bid in co-ordination with Egypt,” Mr Meshaal said in a joint news conference in Cairo with Arab League chief Amr Mussa.
“But we are in the early stages. We have not discussed any (Palestinian) names nor any details.”
An Egyptian official was quoted by the state-run news agency Mena as saying that the topic of prisoners “was one of the main subjects raised during the session”.
“Finding a solution to this topic will have a major impact on the other questions, such as lifting the (Gaza Strip) blockade and the permanent opening of the crossing points,” he said.