Hopes for Peace Rise as Arafat, Peres Begin a New Round of Private Talks : Mideast: PLO leader declares that agreement on Palestinian autonomy is near. Security issues remain unresolved.

Trying to break through more than a week of bickering and recriminations that have stalled the Middle East peace process, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres began another round of private negotiations Monday night, and officials were optimistic they would make some headway on an agreement for Palestinian self-rule.

Previously, several days of charges and countercharges had raised questions about whether the two sides, deadlocked over a plan for Palestinian autonomy in Jericho and the Gaza Strip, even had anything to discuss.

“We came with the best of intentions, to write an agreement. We didn’t come to bargain, to argue. We feel very responsible, and may I say that we have made progress and we intend to go ahead,” Peres said after meeting with Arafat for more than an hour.

Arafat said he was optimistic that a full agreement can be reached during the current round of talks “or very soon after.”

“The talks will resume between our two teams; they will continue their work. . . . We are on our way to reach an agreement,” he said.

The two leaders, along with their delegations, were scheduled to continue informal discussions through the night and again today. They announced the appointment of two small working groups, each made up of three delegates from each side, to begin plowing through the remaining points of dispute.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amir Moussa said it appeared the two sides made progress on the deadlock that has delayed the scheduled withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank town of Jericho.

“It could be days away, but it could also be a little longer, because there are a lot of details to work out,” he said.

Arafat, who had initially threatened not to come because of the slim prospects for an agreement, met first with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who had urged the Palestine Liberation Organization leader to at least try to make some headway toward breaking the deadlock, even if no final agreement is signed.

Said Kamel, a senior PLO official in Cairo, predicted that the two sides will at least initial an agreement on several points, if not on the most difficult security issues that have raised grave doubts in Israel in recent weeks over proceeding with the Declaration of Principles signed with the Palestinians in Washington on Sept. 13.

At the heart of the continuing conflict, senior Israeli and PLO officials said, are the same security issues that prevented Arafat and Peres from signing a highly detailed document during their last round of talks a week ago in Switzerland.

There was no hint of compromise from Jerusalem on Monday afternoon. The decision that Peres would meet Arafat was not announced until the eleventh hour, and it came against a backdrop of sharp internal debate about the Israeli army’s security concerns in the future Palestinian autonomous zones.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who predicted last week that no final agreement would be reached for several more weeks, has spent much of the past week closeted with his top military commanders. And Monday, Peres joined in the discussions, which reportedly addressed strong military concerns--shared by Rabin--about tentative security arrangements that Peres and Arafat agreed to set up at international border posts and on key highways leading to Jewish settlements in the territories.

The military’s role in the stalled process was so visible that it spawned criticism and debate within the Israeli Parliament and even in Rabin’s Cabinet, where the prime minister and his chief of staff defended themselves against charges that their involvement in the peace talks blurred Israel’s traditional division between political and military authority.

Predictably, criticism was even sharper from Palestinian leaders, who heaped blame for the delay squarely on Rabin.

Faisal Husseini, the appointed head of Arafat’s Fatah wing in the West Bank and a member of the delegation traveling with Arafat to Cairo, suggested that Rabin is using the security concerns as “a pretext” to avoid withdrawal. Husseini charged that “Rabin’s distrustful and rebellious nature” as a former military commander is blocking the more general agreement he endorsed on the White House lawn in September.

“Nobody believes that any of the steps taken to implement Gaza-Jericho could form a threat to the state of Israel,” added another Palestinian source close to the talks. “This is absolutely inconceivable now.”

But Rabin has insisted in several recent speeches that the issue of border crossings and settler roads is fundamental to Israel’s security and that lengthy, additional negotiations are needed to guard against an influx of arms, refugees and “terrorists.”

For the Palestinians, the border-control issue is equally fundamental. Arafat has insisted that Palestinian control of international borders is essential to autonomy, and he has stressed the symbolic importance of such details as whether Palestinian border police will be permitted to wear uniforms.

Arafat also faced strong internal pressure during the week between sessions. He too waited until the last possible moment to decide whether to come to Cairo. His advisers said he was torn between his hopes for concluding a deal and the appeals of his advisers in Tunis, Tunisia, who insisted the trip would be a mistake if there was no promise of a final deal.

Peres gave no such indications Monday morning, saying only that Rabin had authorized him to reach “a general agreement” with Arafat if the PLO leader agreed to attend the scheduled meeting.

Since Arafat and Peres last met, the two sides had been trading copies of various draft agreements by telephone and fax, hoping to pave the way for a meeting with Arafat and Rabin. But the attempt broke down when Israel failed to send a security delegation to Cairo early last week as promised.

The Israeli strategy had embittered some in the Palestinian delegation.

“Mr. Rabin and his army are responsible for the delay,” said Nabil Shaath, the PLO’s chief negotiator in Cairo. “They thought they alone should dictate the terms of the agreement.”

Shaath added that Rabin further angered the PLO with his widely publicized prediction last week that it could take up to a year to implement even the initial troop withdrawal.

“First he said three months, then six months, and now we’re hearing a year?” Shaath complained. “If he’s talking about a year, then he should find other partners to deal with. We have other things to do during that year.”

Murphy reported from Cairo and Fineman from Jerusalem.