Bush urges Arab leaders to line up with Saudi land-for-peace overture to Israel

Tuesday, March 26th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush is urging Arab leaders to back a Saudi peace offer to Israel and is leaning on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to let Yasser Arafat go to an Arab League summit where the proposal is being considered.

But Sharon still had not made a decision on the eve of the summit, and a draft document prepared for Arab leaders made no mention of the Saudi offer while calling for Israel to give up all the land lost by the Arabs in the 1967 Mideast war.

And President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose moderate views on the Arab-Israeli conflict are prized by U.S. administrations, decided not to attend the summit.

Still, the White House persisted Tuesday on both tracks.

Spokesman Ari Fleischer said Sharon had received Bush's message. And on peacemaking, Fleischer said: ``When Saudi Arabia comes out with ideas that focus on peace and focus on hope, those ideas should be welcomed and those ideas need to be received in an environment that leads to more positive thinking and positive statements.''

Along those lines, Fleischer said Monday, ``The president believes it is time for Arab nations in the region to seize the moment, to create a better environment for peace to take root.''

Under the initiative framed by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Israel, in return for recognition and promises of trade, would be required to give up all of the West Bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights. It would also cede part of Jerusalem, accept a Palestinian state with its capital there and consider repatriating hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

``The president would like to see come out of Beirut a recognition by Arab leaders that is consistent with Prince Abdullah's initiative,'' Fleischer said of the meeting that opens Wednesday in Lebanon's capital.

Bush welcomes the proposal as ``very helpful in the search for peace in the Middle East,'' the spokesman said.

Fleischer said Israel should drop its confinement of Arafat to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah and ``should give serious consideration to allowing Yasser Arafat to attend'' the summit.

Secretary of State Colin Powell pressed the point in two telephone calls to Sharon over the weekend, saying also that Arafat should be permitted to go back to the West Bank after the meeting.

The U.S. aim is to keep Arafat focused on clamping down on violence instead of considering wider travel.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has called Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza an illegal occupation, also urged Sharon to let Arafat attend the Arab summit.

Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said Annan would meet Arafat if Arafat goes to Beirut.

In Jerusalem, however, Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Sharon, said Israel would not lift its travel ban on Arafat until the Palestinian leader took decisive steps against militants.

In the meantime, Sharon proposed a three-stage peace plan with the Palestinians that would begin with a cease-fire, move on to a ``long-range interim period'' with a partial peace arrangement and then to negotiations for a permanent peace.

In a long phone conversation Monday, Powell urged Arafat to give ``clear and unambiguous orders to Palestinian security forces to prevent further terror attacks,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Simultaneously, Boucher said Israel ``must create an environment that makes real success possible'' for American mediator Anthony Zinni's ongoing effort to rebuild a cease-fire.

Zinni and Aaron D. Miller, longtime State Department mediator, held several separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Zinni was trying to set up a three-way session.