Israel's security cabinet met on Wednesday to consider easing the Gaza blockade, officials said, in the face of world pressure following a deadly raid on an aid flotilla to the territory last month.
The ministers adjourned after several hours of discussion, government officials said, without announcing when they would reconvene.
Israel Radio said the cabinet could meet again later in the day to consider a plan to expand a list of about 100 goods that Israel permits through its crossings into the Gaza Strip, a territory run by Hamas Islamists.
Earlier, both the public channel and Channel 10 private TV said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, under strong international pressure, had decided to "considerably" ease the blockade and to take steps to that end on Wednesday.
In Luxembourg on Monday, an EU diplomat said Israel had indicated it was ready to ease the blockade significantly.
"The indications we are getting from Israel is that they are willing to go from a positive to a negative list," the diplomat said, referring to a change from a list of permitted items to a list of banned items, with many more previously banned goods allowed in.
And Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Israel has agreed in principle to greatly ease the blockade, allowing in everyday goods while ensuring arms and military material stay out.
But Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor denied such a move had been agreed, telling AFP: "These are ideas that we are discussing."
"Of course Israel is ready to let through more goods, but we have to discuss which goods go on the list."
Israel imposed the blockade in 2006 after Palestinian fighters from Gaza captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid. The siege was tightened the following year after the Islamist movement Hamas seized control of the territory from forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
The United Nations, meanwhile, has agreed to deliver to Gaza cargo aboard three aid ships seized by Israel on May 31 and has won the consent of Israel and the cargo's Turkish owners to do so, a U.N. envoy said on Tuesday.
Israel's navy took control of a six-ship convoy trying to run the Jewish state's blockade of Gaza and forced it to dock in Israeli ports. Nine people were killed aboard one vessel, the Turkish-registered Mavi Mara, provoking an international outcry. Israel said its commandos acted in self-defense.
U.N. Middle East envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council the United Nations was ready to take responsibility for delivery of the aid cargo "on an exceptional basis."
The world body "has obtained the consent of the cargo owners of the three Turkish-registered vessels to take possession of and responsibility for the entire cargo and ensure its timely distribution in Gaza for humanitarian purposes as determined by the United Nations," Serry said.
"The government of Israel has agreed to release the entire cargo to the United Nations in Gaza, again on the understanding that it is for the United Nations to determine its appropriate humanitarian use in Gaza," he added.
Serry said he had reason to believe that the "de facto authorities" in Gaza -- a reference to the Hamas group that controls the Palestinian territory -- would allow the United Nations to determine where the aid went.
Serry also made clear that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's proposal for a full international inquiry into the May 31 storming of the aid flotilla was in addition to the investigation Israel itself plans to carry out.
Israel's cabinet on Monday approved the Israeli inquiry, whose panel will include two foreign observers.
The United Nations said on Monday the Israeli probe "could fit with" Ban's proposal, which it said remained on the table.