Israel has begun releasing a number of Palestinian prisoners ahead of a visit to the region by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state.

Nearly 200 Palestinians held in Israeli jails are expected to be returned to the West Bank on Monday as part of a move Israel says is aimed at bolstering Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

About 11,000 Palestinians will remain in Israeli prisons after Monday's mass release.

Palestinian officials, including Ashraf al-Ajrami, minister of prisoner affairs, greeted the prisoners as they boarded buses at Israel's Ofer military detention centre in the occupied West Bank.

The prisoners were to be formally released at Beituniya checkpoint before heading to Abbas's presidential compound in Ramallah for an official celebration.

Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said that Palestinians were celebrating by dancing and playing music as they waited for a convoy of buses carrying the prisoners to arrive.

Two of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, for whom Israel has made a rare exception to its policy of not freeing those implicated in deadly attacks on its citizens, were among those expected to be freed.

Said al-Attaba, 56, has been serving a life sentence since 1977 for killing an Israeli woman, and Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Ali, 51, known as "Abu Ali Yatta," who has been behind bars since 1979 for killing an Israeli reservist.


Al Jazeera and agencies