Bush asks Israel to permit Arafat to attend Arab summit to take up Saudi peace proposal

Monday, March 25th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Bush urged Arab nations Monday to affirm a Saudi land-for-peace proposal with Israel and said Prime Minister Ariel Sharon should let Yasser Arafat participate in considering the U.S.-backed initiative.

``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,'' said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Bush welcomes the proposal by Crown Prince Abdullah and ``he thinks it would be very helpful in the search for peace in the Middle East,'' Fleischer said.

The president's request to Sharon was conveyed through Secretary of State Colin Powell, the spokesman said. There was no explanation why Bush did not talk directly to the Israeli leader.

Powell also had a 35-minute telephone converation with Arafat, said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an Arafat aide. In that talk, Rdeneh said, Arafat sought more U.S. intervention in the Mideast conflict and more pressure on Israel. There was no immediate elaboration from the Palestinian Authority or the State Department.

Fleischer said Bush would like Arab leaders to agree in Beirut to approve ``Abdullah's initiative that recognizes Israel's right to exist.''

The White House official did not mention that Abdullah is insisting that in exchange for diplomatic recognition and trade Israel relinquish all the land the Arabs lost in their 1967 war with Israel.

Sharon has penned Arafat in his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah in response to persistent Palestinian attacks on Israel.

``The president believes that Mr. Sharon and the Israeli government should give serious consideration to allowing Yasser Arafat to attend,'' Fleischer said.

``The president wants to see the meeting in Beirut focus on ideas for peace,'' Fleischer told reporters in a morning briefing.

Meanwhile, truce talks between Israel and the Palestinians are proceeding despite few signs of progress and much criticism of Arafat by the Bush administration.

Violence raged Sunday even with the cease-fire effort. Israeli commandos backed by helicopters tracked and killed four militants who slipped across the normally quiet border with Jordan, and seven other people were killed in incidents elsewhere.

The administration clings to the hope that the bloodshed can be stopped and that Arafat can and should control militant groups who have made it clear they have no intention of halting their killing of Israeli civilians until, at least, Israel yields the West Bank and Gaza.

The truce terms U.S. mediator Anthony Zinni is working on do not require Israel to give up the land the Arabs lost in the 1967 war. Bush and Powell, however, regularly hold out to the Palestinians the vision of eventually getting a state for themselves on that land.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who was prepared to fly to Egypt to see Arafat if he agreed to a truce, said Sunday the Palestinian leader had not earned such a meeting.

The two sides met Sunday under U.S. auspices and evidently made little, if any, headway toward building a truce that would start Israel and the Palestinians into preliminary peacemaking.

Israeli and Palestinian officials said another meeting was scheduled for Monday. Talks cannot be held from sunset Wednesday until nightfall Thursday because of observance by Israelis of the Jewish holiday of Passover.

Cheney said Arafat had not met a series of conditions for a meeting, including renouncing terrorism and sharing intelligence with the Israelis.

``We're going to do everything we can to try to bring the bloodshed to an end and get on a political track, but we're not there yet,'' Cheney said Sunday on CBS' ``Face the Nation''.

Powell, traveling with Bush in Latin America, said the vice president ``could go at a later time. It doesn't have to be right away. The important point is that Chairman Arafat knows we want to engage with him as we move forward.''

Bush, meanwhile, has shunned Arafat, withholding an invitation to the White House. Sharon has been there four times in the past year.

Powell said he and Abdullah have reviewed the draft of an Arab League declaration they hoped will be adopted. The Saudi peace plan calls for an end to the Israel-Arab conflict in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from disputed territories, according to a draft received by the Palestinians.

However, it leaves the explosive issue of Palestinian refugees open to broad interpretations. Also, Israel rejects the main element _ a full withdrawal from the territories it captured in 1967.