Israel's US envoy visits jailed spy

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has sent Israel's Washington envoy to visit jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard for the first time in what could be the start of renewed efforts to win his release from US prison.

"I delivered a message of support and reinforcement from the prime minister," ambassador Danny Ayalon was quoted as saying by Israel's YNet news website.

"I told him we believe he has paid a heavy price and we are doing everything to bring about his release," Ayalon said.

"The matter is very sensitive and complicated but after 21 years, he should be freed for humanitarian reasons."

Israeli political sources said they expected imminent progress in securing freedom for Pollard, an American Jew and ex-US Navy intelligence analyst convicted of spying for the Jewish state in the 1980s.

They said Sharon, keen to shore up support among Israeli right-wingers split by his plan to withdraw from the occupied Gaza Strip this summer, raised the issue with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last month.

"We believe and hope there will be progress in the matter of Pollard during the summer," a source in Sharon's office said.

Past US administrations have stood firm in the face of Israeli appeals to free Pollard, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1986 for passing secrets to Israel.

"Jonathan Pollard continues to serve out his penalty for the crime he committed," a spokesman for the White House national security council said. "His status has not changed."

- REUTERS