JERUSALEM - Israel has asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to help secure the release of two Israeli soldiers seized by Hizbollah, and not to mediate negotiations to free them, Israeli officials said on Monday.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, seen here in Jaddas, said that Israel and Lebanon's Shiite group Hezbollah have agreed to United Nations mediation on the issue of prisoners. [AFP]

Annan said on Monday he would appoint a secret envoy to work for the release of the soldiers.

"A mediator is not needed," an Israeli government official said. "The U.N. resolution determines that the soldiers will be released unconditionally. The U.N. Secretary-General will assist and not mediate."

The U.N. Security Council resolution that calls for a full cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hizbollah also calls, in its preamble, for the unconditional release of Israeli soldiers abducted by Hizbollah in a cross-border raid at the outset of the war. The same preamble "encourages" the settling of the issue of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.

The abduction sparked a 34-day war between Israel and Hizbollah.

Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said the precise definition of the role he would play was not an issue.

"The idea is that the secretary-general has offered his good offices and they have been accepted. What we are trying to achieve is the release of the soldiers," Fawzi told Reuters by telephone.

"I think that we are on the same page and I really don't want to go into the definitions. The main issue is that he has offered his good offices and they have been accepted."

Annan, who met leaders in Lebanon and Israel last week, said both sides had accepted his offer.

Israel's official position remains that it will not enter into any negotiations to free the soldiers, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

But a top Israeli political source said last week that the Jewish state would be willing to discuss freeing Lebanese prisoners for the soldiers if negotiations were conducted through the Lebanese government, not with Hizbollah.

(Additional reporting by Inal Ersan in Dubai)