Jerusalem Mayor Open to U.N. Inquiry Team : Israel: Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir rejects the stance, which contradicts the nation’s position that no investigation into the Temple Mount killings is necessary.

Jerusalem Mayor Teddy Kollek said today he is willing to meet with a U.N. investigation team despite the Israeli Cabinet decision rejecting an outside inquiry into the Temple Mount killings.

Kollek told Israel radio it would be a sign of weakness not to see the team.

Kollek’s statement was a break in what has been a wall of official Israeli opposition to the U.N. Security Council’s decision Friday to send a U.N. team to investigate the shooting deaths of at least 19 Palestinians by police on Oct. 8.

“I think that I am secure in our intentions and with the situation in Jerusalem, that whomever comes here I can receive them and answer them,” said Kollek, who has been mayor since 1965. “Not to do this doesn’t portray strength. It portrays weakness.”

Avi Pazner, spokesman for Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, rejected Kollek’s stand, saying: “A mission that comes to Israel should see the government and not mayors.”

The Israeli Cabinet’s rejection Sunday of the U.N. inquiry was discussed today in hourlong talks between Shamir and visiting British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd, Pazner said.

Shamir rejected a compromise put forward by Hurd that Israel reject the U.N. condemnation of the incident but agree to speak with U.N. investigators, he said.

Pazner quoted the prime minister as saying the Cabinet made its decision on the ground that “the resolution deals with the question of Jerusalem, which is our capital, and we don’t see any reason for the U.N. to investigate here.”

Hurd later told reporters: “Obviously our points of view differ on these matters.”

Nearly all Western countries do not recognize Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem, captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war.

Earlier, Hurd met with Foreign Minister David Levy and said the two agreed the priority in the Middle East should be to overcome Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, whose troops overran Kuwait on Aug. 2.

Hurd arrived in Israel on Monday night for a three-day visit, which is to include talks with Palestinian leaders.

Israel has said the Temple Mount shootings were provoked by Arabs throwing stones at Jews worshiping at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.