Baker Sends Letter to Levy Urging U.S.-Israel Talks : Mideast: A meeting would be the first high-level contact in more than four months between the two countries.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III has sent a letter to new Foreign Minister David Levy, inviting the Israeli official to meet with him soon, Foreign Ministry officials said Friday.

A meeting of the two senior officials would be the first high-level contact in more than four months between the two countries, whose relations have been increasingly strained over the lack of progress in the peace process.

Israeli newspapers reported that Baker suggested in the letter he is willing to meet with Levy, who became foreign minister last month, on July 17 in Paris during German unification talks.

“I understand you are the type of person who solves problems,” Baker wrote, according to the Hebrew daily Yediot Ahronot. “We must meet very soon.”

A Foreign Ministry official denied a date for meeting was mentioned and described the letter as a “goodwill” message with “an invitation to meet soon, but no specific date.”

The time of a meeting also would depend on the health of the foreign minister, who is still recovering from a heart attack he suffered three weeks ago, officials said.

The Baker letter, described as “very warm and friendly,” was delivered Thursday to Levy by the U.S. ambassador to Israel, William A. Brown, officials said.

Yediot Ahronot also reported that Israel recently sent messages to Washington saying it would agree to negotiations with Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip without checking their allegiances. The messages indicated a willingness to talk to supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization, but not PLO members.

In London, meanwhile, President Bush said Friday he will resume talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization if it condemns a guerrilla raid on Israel and punishes the plot’s mastermind.

Declaring he wanted to revive Middle East peace efforts, Bush said that if the PLO responds to his request, he will urgently consider renewing a dialogue that had been useful.

“What I want to see is the peace process go forward,” Bush told a news conference at the end of a two-day North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit.

But PLO officials in Tunis, Tunisia, said they see nothing new in Bush’s restatement of conditions for resuming talks with the organization.

The United States halted the 18-month dialogue last month, saying PLO leader Yasser Arafat had failed to condemn the May 30 guerrilla attack on Israel.

The action was taken after an attempted raid by members of a radical PLO faction, led by Abul Abbas, against Israeli beaches. Israel charged that this was an example of how the PLO remains committed to “terrorism” despite public statements to the contrary.

The Baker letter to Levy is the latest message in a series of letters between the two countries since Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir formed a right-wing coalition government June 11, when Levy moved from the Housing Ministry to the Foreign Ministry.