Mideast Peace Near, Christopher Says : Diplomacy: Continued talks offer hope. But Israel not as optimistic as U.S. about progress with Syria.

On the first day of his sixth Mideast shuttle, Secretary of State Warren Christopher talked with Israeli leaders Monday and predicted that the peace process is close to realizing its goal.

“The Arab-Israeli conflict, one of the most longstanding and most intractable conflicts of this entire century, is drawing to an end,” he said after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. “There will be difficulties on the path ahead. But, nonetheless, we’re proceeding to assist the parties and they are proceeding with great determination.”

Christopher called his weeklong trip before next Monday’s planned summit between Rabin and Jordan’s King Hussein in Washington “these historic seven days.”

But there was little tangible progress to back up his optimism. While Israeli officials are encouraged by the momentum created with the latest breakthrough on the Jordanian negotiating front, they said Monday they did not share U.S. optimism about progress with Syria.

Christopher is scheduled to meet today and again Friday with Syrian President Hafez Assad, now the major holdout in the peace process.

“We can always hope, but there’s nothing to give us hope of any major movement any time soon,” an Israeli official said. Christopher will not carry any compromises to break the impasse with Syria, officials added.

In Damascus, a Syrian official said Monday that the Assad government is prepared to help break the impasse. “Syria is ready to discuss everything which might help push the peace process toward its objectives, which are the achievement of a just and comprehensive settlement,” an official spokesman said.

U.S. officials said Monday their optimism about prospects for peace in the region stems, in part, from behind-the-scenes progress in talks between Israel and the Arab world that have quietly been under way since January, 1992.

In recent weeks, progress has been made in talks with more than a dozen countries on a host of regional problems--producing the first, critical phase of normalization with the Arab world.

The talks, which have brought Israeli officials to meetings in a number of Arab countries for the first time, have now moved from theoretical discussions to concrete projects “which bear significantly on the long-term peace, stability and prosperity of the region,” the State Department said.

Since the talks moved to Arab capitals last fall, Israeli officials have made groundbreaking trips to spots such as Morocco, Tunisia, Oman and Qatar.

As a complement to talks between Israel and its Arab neighbors, the other Arab working groups are removing psychological barriers and taking practical steps to create a new, post-peace Middle East, said Daniel Kurtzer, deputy assistant secretary of state.

Each group--on arms control, economic development, environment, water resources and refugees--is nearing consensus on a course of action, he said. They are developing plans to create a regional environmental authority to deal with problems in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Mediterranean Sea and a regional water authority. One study seeks to define a common vision of the post-peace Mideast and how it will link Israel and the Arab world in everything from roads and trade to energy and communications.