U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon has welcomed the Israeli cabinet's approval of a prisoner swap deal with Hizbullah under which the remains of two soldiers are to be handed over in exchange for five Lebanese "fighters" and an undetermined number of Palestinians.

Ban welcomed "recent progress on resolving the humanitarian aspects of the Security Council resolution that ended the 2006" war between Israel and Hizbullah, his spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.

"He looks forward to the signing and the full implementation of the negotiated agreement in the near future," the statement said.

"He hopes that the envisaged humanitarian moves will encourage further steps on implementing other parts of the resolution (1701) and contribute to further humanitarian moves," the statement added.