In Marathon Meeting, Baker Strives to Lure Syrians to Peace Table : Mideast: He reports ‘useful discussions’ in nearly 10 hours with Assad, who holds the key to regional talks.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III struggled for nearly 10 hours Tuesday in an attempt to persuade Syrian President Hafez Assad--possibly the indispensable player--to attend his proposed Middle East peace conference.

“We had some useful discussions,” a seemingly exhausted Baker told reporters as he returned to his hotel after the marathon bargaining session.

Did he make any progress?

“I hope we did,” he replied. “We’ll see.”

Then he disappeared into his hotel suite, promising a news conference today.

Without Syrian participation, it is unlikely the peace conference will ever convene. Saudi Arabia has already announced that it will not attend, and the defection of Syria would leave only Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon as prospective Arab participants--probably short of the critical mass that is needed to assure Israeli participation.

While Baker and Assad were closeted in the Syrian president’s modest office, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler announced that Baker will interrupt his Middle East shuttle today to fly to Kislovodsk, a Soviet town in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains near the Black Sea. He will confer there with Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh on Thursday.

Tutwiler said Baker’s talks with Bessmertnykh will be limited to the situation in the Middle East. The United States has proposed a regional peace conference co-hosted by its onetime superpower rival, and Baker apparently wants to obtain a firm commitment of Soviet participation to revive the conference’s flagging prospects.

Moscow has been seeking an equal role with Washington in the Middle East for nearly 20 years, so Baker may find it far easier to obtain Soviet participation than to woo Syria and Israel to the table.

Tutwiler said Kislovodsk, located on the Podhumok River, was selected because it is about halfway between Moscow and Damascus.

The side trip to the Soviet Union will delay by two days Baker’s anticipated return to Israel. Tutwiler said Baker plans to travel to Jerusalem on Thursday afternoon for talks there Friday with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

Baker’s first stop on his current trip was Jerusalem, where he presented several possible compromises to Shamir. The secretary of state expects to get some responses on Friday.

Israel does not expect anything dramatic from Baker’s detour to southern Russia--neither a Soviet announcement of opening diplomatic relations with Israel nor a visit from the Soviet foreign minister, a senior Israeli official said in Jerusalem.

However, the official admitted to being in the dark as to Baker’s exact motive, except to say that he “understood” that the Soviets requested the meetings.

The official added that the Israelis have received no indication of a Syrian softening on terms for a regional conference. Syria wants U.N. oversight and a continuing role for outside powers. The Shamir government, according to this official, would not be eager to make concessions on the format of the meeting or on Palestinian representation unless there is some concession from the Arab side.

“We cannot be the only ones asked to change our stands,” the official said.

Israel wants face-to-face talks with Arab states without intervention by outsiders. The Israelis also insist that no Palestinian from Jerusalem take part in the meeting and that the Palestinian negotiating team not align itself with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

There were growing indications that Baker is becoming impatient with the slow pace of Middle East diplomacy. An Administration official said Baker is concerned that his current Middle East shuttle might degenerate into fruitless wandering, like former Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s final peace initiative, which failed to bridge the gap between Israel and its Arab adversaries.

“Any time you engage in this effort, there is a possibility of being ‘Shultzed,’ ” the official said, picking up a phrase from the questioner, “or ‘Haiged’ or ‘Vanced’ or, taken all the way back, ‘Kissingered’--or anyone else.”

Moreover, about the only leverage that Baker has to bring reluctant leaders to the negotiating table is the threat that he might terminate his effort and go on to something else.

Although Syria and Israel have shown very little inclination to make the sort of compromises needed to get the conference started, both have made it clear that they do not want Baker to drop his effort. All the parties would suffer from the fallout of a total failure in the peace process.

Nevertheless, it seems clear that Assad and Shamir are the toughest nuts that Baker must try to crack. Both men are stubborn and determined, and both have made intransigence almost a political trademark.

Baker envisions the regional conference as the starting point for what he calls a “two-track” approach--face-to-face negotiations between Israel and neighboring Arab governments on one track, and Israel and the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip on the other.

The conference would almost surely be rated a success if it produced direct talks between Shamir and Assad. Anything less probably would be judged a failure.

Baker’s meeting with Assad, stretching from 11:30 a.m. until after 9 p.m., was his second marathon session with the Syrian leader in less than two weeks. Assad likes drawn-out negotiations, even though, by the accounts of some who have experienced them, the meetings often amount to little more than monologues on Assad’s view of Middle East history and politics.

According to Arab diplomatic sources, Shultz insulted Assad by trying to limit their meetings to two or three hours, about the same length of time he devoted to sessions with other leaders. Baker seems determined to give the Syrian president as much time as he wants.

Times staff writer Daniel Williams in Jerusalem contributed to this article.