Shamir Asks Bush for Limited PLO Role : Israel: Comments leave no doubt that a final agreement on setting up talks with Palestinians is not at hand.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir took his appeal against a PLO role in Mideast talks to President Bush today after making “some progress” in a two-hour session with Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

Standing alongside Shamir in the marble-columned State Department lobby, Baker agreed with the Israeli leader’s description of their session. But Baker and Shamir provided no details before heading for the White House.

Their brief remarks left no doubt that final agreement on setting up talks between Israel and Palestinian Arabs is still not in hand.

“I think we will continue the discussions,” Shamir said. “I think we made some progress.”

Baker, after echoing the prime minister’s assessment, said there was still no acceptance of arrangements for the talks from Egypt.

The Israeli Cabinet has given its conditional approval, asking at the same time for assurances from the United States that the Palestine Liberation Organization would be excluded and the agenda limited to procedures for holding elections on the West Bank and in Gaza.

“I hope we will soon be receiving a similar response from Egypt,” Baker said of the Cabinet’s conditional approval.

At the White House, Bush and Shamir posed for pictures in the Oval Office. The President ignored reporters’ questions.

Meanwhile, Marlin Fitzwater, the presidential spokesman, denied Bush was frustrated with Shamir over a delay in arranging the talks.

“It’s important not to become impatient when you’re dealing with the Middle East,” Fitzwater said. “Two thousand years is the normal wait for things to happen.

“You have to fight frustration because it’s just not a fast process.”

Shamir is appealing to Bush against a PLO role in the talks being arranged between Israel and Palestinian Arabs. The Israeli leader does not want to legitimize Yasser Arafat’s organization, which has conducted terrorist attacks against Israel, or be drawn into negotiations over territory.

Although Shamir’s plan to visit Washington surfaced two months ago, the White House delayed until last week in arranging a meeting with Bush. This was interpreted in some reports as evidence of White House frustration with Shamir.

The Israeli leader, on an 11-day trip to the United States and Europe, wants to restrict the talks with Palestinian Arabs to arrangements for limited self-rule on the West Bank and in Gaza.

But the PLO has not given its approval for the talks, and Bush and Baker might weigh giving iron-clad assurances to Israel against risking PLO disapproval.