CAIRO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- A senior Egyptian official on Sunday confirmed to Xinhua that the exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Khaled Meshaal would visit Egypt, but without giving an exact date.

    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Meshaal, now in exile in Syria, would visit Cairo to discuss with Egyptian officials on the issues of prisoners' swap and the situation in the Palestinian territories, as well as setting up a Palestinian national unity government.

    He told Xinhua that Egypt would try to persuade Meshaal to help set up a Palestinian national unity government between the ruling Hamas and the Fatah movement led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

    In the meantime, Egypt would invite Hamas and Fatah leaders to Cairo to hold "serious talks" about the establishment of a unity government if Meshaal agreed to help, according to the official.

    Meshaal would have visited Cairo several days earlier, said the source, saying that Meshaal may come to Cairo in four or five days if everything goes right.

    Egyptian Presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad told a press conference here that Egypt had invited Meshaal for a visit had done its best to broker negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel on the prisoner swap deal and help major Palestinian political factions to set up a unity government.

    The Egyptian official's confirmation came one day after Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of High Education Nasser El-dein al-Sha'er, also a Hamas member, informed that Meshaal would visit Egypt.

    Egypt's official news agency MENA reported, citing well-informed Palestinian sources, that Hamas planned to agree with the formation of a coalition government, which it preferred to last only for a specific period of one year before holding legislative and presidential elections.

    Hamas has been at loggerheads with Fatah led by Abbas in the last several months, especially in the last several weeks after talks between Abbas and Hamas leaders over forming a national unity government deadlocked due to Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel.

    As for the prisoner swap, the deal for the release of Shalit was almost ready and a new formula of the deal had been sent to Israel lately for study.

    So far, Egyptian officials have been actively coordinating a prisoners' swap, which involved Israeli soldier Shalit, who was kidnapped and held hostage by Palestinian militants in Gaza since June, and the Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

    Earlier, Israeli Minister of Infrastructure Benyamin Ben-Eliezer had said during his visit in Cairo on Oct. 19, that an Egypt-brokered swap deal between Israel and the Palestinians was vetoed by Meshaal.

    Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, maintains good relations with both Israel and the Palestinians, and has long been playing a mediating role between the Palestinians and Israel.