JERUSALEM: A joint meeting in Berlin of the German and Israeli cabinets that was postponed in November will now take place on January 18, an Israeli government official said on Sunday.

The previously scheduled session of the two governments was due to be held on November 30, but was postponed because Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fell ill with a viral infection.

Netanyahu is expected to travel to the German capital with senior ministers for the meeting, which follows a similar one in Israel when German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited in March 2008.

Germany is currently playing a leading role in efforts to broker a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement for an Israeli soldier held by Palestinian militants inside the Gaza Strip since 2006.