U.S. and Israel to Seek Conference on Mideast : Diplomacy: The talks would include Arab nations and the Soviets. But Baker sees a ‘long way to go.’

The United States and Israel have agreed to seek a formal Middle East peace conference as the first major step in a new set of negotiations aimed at settling the Arab-Israeli conflict, U.S. and Israeli officials said Tuesday.

But Secretary of State James A. Baker III warned that “there is a long, long way to go” before such a meeting, which would include U.S., Soviet and Palestinian participants as well as Arab countries and Israel, can be arranged.

“There are many, many details that have to be addressed,” Baker said. “There is a long, long way to go; there are many, many parties involved; there are a lot of questions before us that have to be addressed and that have not been resolved.”

The issues still outstanding include the most basic elements of the proposed conference, including who would participate and what the meeting’s goal would be, another U.S. official said. “The precise format, the character, the participants--none of that has been worked out yet,” he said.

Nevertheless, the conference plan--if it wins acceptance from the Arab countries--would for the first time give a concrete form to the Bush Administration’s month-old Middle East peace initiative.

“The meeting is important because it can break some of the taboos” against direct negotiations between the Arabs and Israel, the official said. “We’re moving into a phase of how you translate concepts into reality. It’s time to think about how we produce an engagement, a meeting.”

He said Baker had already discussed the proposal by telephone with Arab leaders and indicated that the secretary of state hopes to win their formal approval in meetings in Cairo and Damascus later this week.

The proposal for a peace conference under U.S. leadership appears designed to give something to both Israel and the Arabs. Israel has long sought face-to-face talks with its Arab neighbors, largely because that would imply their recognition of the Jewish state. The Arabs have long pressed for direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, largely because that would imply Israeli recognition of the Palestinians as a nation with political rights.

At the same time, the new focus on a conference represented a shift in the U.S. peace initiative, which had centered on asking Israel and the Arabs to enact concrete “confidence-building measures” to reduce hostility. Neither Israel nor the Arabs responded with significant actions--leaving Baker and other officials with little to show for their efforts.

Baker met with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Foreign Minister David Levy and Defense Minister Moshe Arens throughout an unseasonably rainy day in Jerusalem.

After his 90-minute meeting at the Foreign Ministry with Baker, Levy announced with an air of triumph that there was agreement on the aims of a regional conference.

“The United States believes it is possible to convene a meeting of Arab states with Israel to talk peace,” said Levy, who has staked his political reputation on breaking the Israeli-Arab deadlock. “The United States believes that the Soviet Union, which would accept the process and the agenda, should participate. And the moment that such agreements are accepted, Israel will accept the participation of the Soviet Union.”

Baker, standing at Levy’s side and looking nonplused, said--in effect--”whoa.” “I would hope there is not any rush to judgment here by journalists with respect to the fact that something has been completely agreed to, because that is not the case,” he cautioned.

Avi Pazner, Shamir’s spokesman, said the Shamir-Baker meeting was “very good.” The session ran so far overtime that Shamir and Baker sent out for sandwiches--and then scheduled another meeting for today before Baker flies to Cairo.

Despite the general agreement, deep discord appears to remain between the Bush Administration and Israel over the goals of the conference, at least as they might affect the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

President Bush has called for Israel to surrender occupied land in return for peace under U.N. resolutions that call for Israeli withdrawal from at least part of the territory.

Israeli officials claim that their country already complied with the resolutions when it left the Sinai Peninsula, which Israel returned when it made peace with Egypt in 1979.

“Shamir would rather cut off his own hand than say the words land for peace, “ said a senior official.

The conference proposal replaces a dormant 1989 plan put forth by Shamir to hold elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to choose a Palestinian negotiating team. The plan never got off the ground because Shamir objected to the makeup of Palestinians designated to discuss the election procedures.

The new plan instead focuses on another part of the 1989 scheme: to get direct talks under way between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Only Egypt recognizes Israel; the rest remain in a technical state of war with the Jewish state.

Shamir is demanding that a meeting of all the players in the region should last only one session, then immediately give way to a series of one-to-one meetings between Israel and its Arab neighbors. But most of the Arabs want to keep the regional format.

“Israel would prefer that it gets an embassy in Damascus before making any substantive move,” remarked a Western diplomat here, only half in jest.

Shamir’s government has placed the same conditions on Palestinians joining the talks as he did on their role in elections: No member of the talks panel can belong to the Palestine Liberation Organization, none can reside in Jerusalem and none can promote the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

The PLO is anathema to Shamir because of its terrorist tactics and its demand for sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza, home to 1.7 million Palestinians but claimed by Israel. Palestinians from Jerusalem are barred because the Shamir government is committed to keeping East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after the 1967 Middle East War.

The conference as tentatively drawn up rattled members of Shamir’s right-wing coalition. Housing Minister Ariel Sharon, who has called for immediate annexation of large parts of the occupied lands, attacked the idea of any Israeli dialogue with Palestinians.

“The most absurd thing is that the most nationalist government Israel has ever had will bring on a Palestinian state in the heart of the state of Israel,” he said.

Baker also met with half a dozen Palestinian leaders, a group marked by its unwillingness to present a position of their own on means of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They said only the PLO could enter into negotiations.

Nonetheless, they discussed with Baker proposals for holding a regional conference and the Palestinians’ place in it. “We would like to discuss it and have the PLO discuss it,” said Faisal Husseini, a Jerusalem resident identified with the PLO. Under Shamir’s proposals for a regional conference, Husseini would be barred.

The Palestinians expressed bitter disappointment that Baker appeared to be taking a soft line toward the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as to the government decision to periodically expel Palestinian activists and suppress the Arab uprising through use of arms, mass arrests, widespread curfews and heavy taxation.

“I cannot tell you that anything encouraging came out of the meeting,” said Hader Abdel-Shafi, one of the delegates.

American officials insisted that Baker had stressed bluntly the Administration’s opposition to expanded settlements and asked Israel for gestures to ease tensions with the residents under occupation.

The Palestinians had asked, through the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, that four top activists jailed without trial by Israel be permitted to attend the talks with Baker. The Israeli government refused, a Western diplomat reported.

Two of the jailed leaders, Radwan abu Ayash and Ziad abu Ziad, have been jailed since last fall on charges of inciting Palestinians to take to the streets. Abu Ayash was due to be released from jail in three days.

Another, Mamdouh Aker, was jailed until Sunday for having written medical instructions on how to overcome the effects of tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers. He was not granted permission to enter Jerusalem to attend.

The fourth, Sari Nusseibeh, was jailed following the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War on suspicion that he was planning to pinpoint for the Iraqis exactly where their wayward Scud missiles were landing in Israel.

All are considered moderate spokesmen for the Palestinians and favor the establishment of an independent state alongside Israel.

The hourlong meeting with the Palestinians at the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem got off to an embarrassing start with both sides saying they had come to listen. After a moment’s silence, Baker broke the ice by reporting Israel’s planned release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture. The Palestinians responded with a litany of ills.

“Foremost among the issues is the urgent imperative of addressing the brutal Israeli measures carried out against the lives, rights, lands and resources of the Palestinian people under occupation,” the Palestinians told Baker in a written statement.

The PLO gave its blessing to the talks, although two Marxist factions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, called for a boycott of the talks.

For the first time, the Palestinians took notes at the meeting, an act that Palestinian observers said signified that they are serious about negotiating and passing on the proposals to the PLO.