Tel Aviv, March 19 (DPA) Captured Israeli soldiers were slain by Egyptian troops during the 1973 Mideast war, reports Israel's Channel 10.

Egyptian soldiers killed dozens and possibly hundreds of captured Israeli soldiers in the Sinai desert during the war, the report said. It added that Syrian soldiers committed similar actions in the Golan region during the same war, known in Israel as the Yom Kippur War for the religious holiday with which it coincided.

The report quoted former Israeli soldiers as eyewitnesses to the events.

The report, part of a documentary to be aired at a later date, came in response to a separate programme broadcast earlier this month on Israeli television, which alleged that Israeli troops killed 250 captured Egyptian soldiers during the 1967 regional war.

The producer of that programme claimed that his movie was misinterpreted and had not made such claims. He also said that the 250 fighters in question were actually Palestinians, not Egyptians.

The programme led to a diplomatic row between Egypt and Israel, who signed a peace deal in 1978.