By Dan Williams JERUSALEM, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Israel should consider freeing jailed Palestinian lawmaker Marwan Barghouthi as part of a deal that would return a captive soldier and curb violence in the West Bank and Gaza, an Israeli cabinet minister said on Monday. Israel has publicly ruled out clemency for Barghouthi, who continues to be a top power-broker for the formerly dominant Palestinian faction Fatah despite serving five life prison terms for ordering deadly attacks in a 6-year-old Palestinian revolt. But Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said Israel should reconsider its policy if freeing Barghouthi would secure the return of Corporal Gilad Shalit from the Gaza Strip and cement a tentative truce declared last week in the tinderbox territory. There has been growing speculation that Israel and its U.S. ally could try to cultivate Barghouthi, who is very popular among moderate Palestinians, as a potential counterweight to Hamas Islamists that trounced Fatah in elections last January. Asked on Israel Radio whether Barghouthi, 47, should be freed as has been demanded by the Palestinian leadership, Ezra, a former security chief, said: "The question is how big the (swap) deal would be, and what the other side would promise." "If the Palestinian Authority prevents arms smuggling in the Philadelphi corridor (from Egypt to Gaza), then I am in favour," said Ezra. "If the Palestinian Authority promises to crush terrorism, as it undertook to do, then I am in favour." A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has been searching for a way to break the diplomatic deadlock since the recent Lebanon war forced him to shelve a planned unilateral redeployment in the West Bank, played down Ezra's statements. "The prime minister has made it very clear that this subject has not come up in the government," said spokeswoman Miri Eisin. Having agreed a surprise Gaza truce on Nov. 26 with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, Olmert called for a renewed peace process and said he would be willing to free many prisoners -- including some who have served lengthy terms. BARGHOUTHI A POPULAR MODERATE Barghouthi was captured by Israeli troops during a West Bank sweep in 2002, and jailed two years later following a highly publicised trial in an open criminal court in Tel Aviv. He has denied Israeli charges of masterminding attacks by Fatah's militant al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades which killed five people, but has said Palestinians have the right to fight for independence in territories captured by Israel in a 1967 war. Unlike Fatah, Hamas advocates Israel's destruction, a stance that has drawn a Western aid embargo since the Islamist group took power in March. An internal Palestinian power struggle since then has sparked fears of civil war. Shalit's abduction by Hamas and other gunmen in a deadly June 25 raid across the Gaza border further stoked tensions. Olmert at first rejected Hamas's demands for a prisoner swap and ordered several military sweeps of Gaza, the first major incursions by Israel since it quit the coastal strip last year. But with no sign of Shalit, Palestinian rocket fire from Gaza an almost daily occurrence, and international scrutiny on the civilian toll from Israel's military operations mounting, Olmert has recently signalled new flexibility. Hamas wants 1,400 Palestinian prisoners, including leaders of armed factions, freed in exchange for Shalit. Barghouthi's wife, Fadwa, has said that his name appears on the list. Hamas declined comment. "Marwan Barghouthi is without a doubt someone who is important to Fatah, and Fatah is on the ropes today and we should strengthen Fatah if we want to strengthen Abu Mazen (Abbas)," Ezra told Israel Radio. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza)
