Bush Negotiator Is Named to Direct Mideast Peace Talks : Diplomacy: Dennis B. Ross, who worked against Clinton in campaign, will take charge of flagging negotiations. He has six months to get results.

In hope of promoting a breakthrough in Arab-Israel peace talks, Secretary of State Warren Christopher turned Friday to a negotiator from the George Bush Administration, and gave him six months to get results.

Christopher named Dennis B. Ross, who worked against President Clinton in the 1992 campaign, to take direct charge of the flagging negotiations and “to focus our efforts more intensively,” State Department spokesman Michael McCurry said.

Ross, 44, helped launch the peace talks two years ago as a top aide to then-Secretary of State James A. Baker III. He worked for Bush in both the 1988 and 1992 presidential campaigns--making his appointment unusual for the Clinton Administration, which has been attentive to political loyalty.

“This sends a signal to the parties that Secretary Christopher is serious about making a real run at this,” Ross said in an interview. “He wants results this year.”

Christopher has said that he considers the Arab-Israeli talks one of his highest priorities. The negotiations, whose launching was a major triumph for Baker, have reached an apparent impasse during the last three months after earlier signs of hope.

The decision takes day-to-day management of the talks out of the hands of Assistant Secretary of State Edward P. Djerejian, who had run the negotiations since last August. As if to soften that move, Christopher also announced that Djerejian will become ambassador to Israel at the end of the year, replacing William Brown.

“This move does not reflect badly on Ed,” Ross said. “Ed had a lot of other responsibilities--Iran, Iraq, the entire Middle East. He wasn’t in a position to devote full time to the peace talks.”

Officials said that no decision has been made on who will replace Ross and Djerejian when they both move on at the end of the year.

Until his promotion, Ross had been scheduled to leave the State Department to run the Washington Institute on Near East Policy, a private think tank.