Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak accused Israel of scuttling a deal that was on the verge of ending the three-year captivity in Gaza of soldier Gilad Shalit, in an interview to be published in Israel's top-selling daily on Friday.

Mubarak, whose government has led efforts to broker the release of the young conscript seized by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006, told Yediot Aharonot that Shalit was about to be transferred to Egyptian safekeeping when Israel altered its terms for the envisaged prisoner swap.

"There are terms for ending the problem of Gilad Shalit and we were on the verge of resolving it but you delayed the matter," Mubarak said in the interview, carried by Egypt's official MENA news agency on Thursday evening.

"We were on the verge of receiving Shalit from Hamas and of putting him with us until you released some Palestinian (prisoners)," he said, referring to the Islamist group that controls Gaza.

"You kept saying we'll release this one but not that one and the matter was complicated when you introduced new elements."

Shalit, who also has French citizenship, has become a cause celebre on Israel. His family have been deeply critical of successive Israeli governments for failing to secure his release through an exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli jails.