Tel Aviv - Israel will release 198 Palestinian prisoners Monday as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a government statement Sunday said.

The release follows a cabinet decision of one week ago and includes two prisoners "with blood on their hands" - Israeli terminology for prisoners who have killed Israelis, and who Israel has previously refused to include in prisoners deals with the Palestinians.

The prisoners will be released as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to arrive for a visit to the region, during which she will meet Israeli and Palestinian officials and gauge the progress of the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, which resumed around the turn of the year.

The Jerusalem Post daily quoted "diplomatic officials" Sunday as saying Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would be unlikely to agree if Rice asked the sides to prepare a document, to be presented to the United Nations, outlining the progress made in the talks so far.

According to the daily, Livni is concerned any document making public the contents of the talks with the Palestinians would complicate her efforts to be elected leader of the ruling Kadima party.

The primaries are scheduled for September 17, the day before Rice wants to present the document to the UN.

Livni heads the Israeli team in the talks. If elected Kadima leader, she would have to form a new government, or failing that, lead the party into new elections.

Any paper detailing what concessions, if any, she had offered the Palestinians could have a negative impact.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas agreed at last year's Annapolis peace summit to try and secure a peace deal by the end of 2008.

The negotiations, headed by Livni and former Palestinian premier Ahmed Qureia, are being conducted amid a virtual media blackout, with conflicting accounts of what progress, if any, has been made.

But officials from both sides have begun intimating that the end- of-year deadline may have been optimistic.

Rice, however, said during her previous trip to the region, in June, that she thought the target date could still be met.

The secretary of state has made 20 visits to Israel and the Palestinian areas during her term of office. (dpa)