Israel Upbeat, Arabs Are Not as Talks End : Mideast: No major agreements are announced as another round of negotiations is wrapped up.

Middle East peace negotiators wrapped up another round of talks Thursday with Israel claiming progress but the Arabs complaining that the meetings were “a waste of time.”

No substantive agreements were announced after four days of face-to-face meetings, although all sides agreed that the bargainers had grappled with the core issues of a conflict that has lasted for most of this century.

In each of the previous four rounds of talks since the Middle East peace conference in Madrid six months ago, Israel and its Arab neighbors could always agree on one thing--the outlook is gloomy and the other side is to blame. This time, however, Israeli officials were resolutely upbeat in their assessment.

“This was the first businesslike meeting we’ve had in these negotiations,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters. “We put behind us the procedural battles and have gone on to substantive discussions with each of the (Arab) delegations. . . . We have made a great deal of progress.”

But Hanan Ashrawi, the Palestinian spokeswoman, said: “The Israelis are persisting in the use of delaying tactics. . . . It is very unfortunate that this session was a waste of time.”

Netanyahu, who in the past seldom missed a chance to attack Arab motives, insisted that this time the Palestinians and Jordanians were negotiating responsibly. He had nothing negative to say about Syrian or Lebanese negotiators either.

The sunny mood may be an attempt to convince Israeli voters, in advance of their June election, that Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s government is on the side of peace.

Israel called for another round of talks in a week or two--still well in advance of June elections. But Arab delegates said they doubt that there is much point in meeting again before a new government has been installed in Jerusalem. All sides have agreed to meet next in Rome, but there is no agreement yet on the date.

Netanyahu said that Israel and Jordan have agreed to explore the possibility of joint programs to meet common problems.

He cited the agreement as an example of quiet progress in the Israeli-Jordanian talks.

However, Jordanian spokesman Marwan Mouasher said that the talks remain stalled.

“There’s a lot of lateral movement,” Mouasher said. “There is not a whole lot of forward movement, unfortunately.”

In talks with the Palestinians, Israel proposed a series of gradual steps to test the capability of Palestinians to run their own affairs and to permit Israelis to get used to Palestinian autonomy.

In the only two steps that have been made public, Israel offered to turn over to Palestinian administration the health care system of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and offered to permit elections for mayors and city council members in West Bank and Gaza cities. Netanyahu said that similar plans in other areas were proposed to the Palestinians but are being kept confidential.

Ashrawi said that the Palestinians want to elect delegates to an interim self-governing authority for the entire occupied territory before conducting municipal elections. As for the health care plan, she said, “the Palestinians have been running our own hospitals since before the Israeli occupation. There isn’t a single Israeli in the hospital administration.”

She said that the Palestinians believe that the negotiations should be about “a transfer of authority, not a delegation of tasks” in the Israeli government.

Netanyahu agreed that most West Bank and Gaza hospital personnel are Palestinians, but he said that Israel is ready to surrender management control, which it has maintained since it occupied the territories in 1967.

Also Thursday, the State Department in its annual terrorism report continued to list Syria as a nation that supports international terrorism. Syria has asked to be removed from the list, citing its cooperation in the U.S.-sponsored peace process.

The report said that Syria “continues to provide support and safe haven to a number of groups that engage in international terrorism.” Other countries listed are Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea.