MIDDLE EAST : In Arab-Israeli Talks, a New Enthusiasm : Discussions on troop pullout, Palestinian elections stir from their lethargy. A more secure environment is credited.

With a July 1 target date looming for reaching an agreement, Israelis and Palestinians have infused a new sense of urgency into their once-lethargic talks on expanding Palestinian self-government.

Negotiators for each side acknowledge that some of their deepest differences must still be resolved. There is not yet a timetable for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from West Bank towns and villages, and there is no agreement on whether Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem may seek election to the self-governing council that will run Palestinian affairs in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

But the two sides have agreed on a 700-strong international observer force, coordinated by the European Union, to monitor the election process. And they have drafted a 30-page agreement on the voting itself--the first chance that Palestinians will have had to elect their leaders.

On their own, the Palestinians--with the help of the European Union--have trained 120 polling station supervisors, identified 1,500 polling sites in the West Bank and Gaza and signed up 6,000 teachers to work at the polls. They have also used Israeli census data to start compiling a voter list.

“On the ground, we are so proud of what we have done,” said Saeb Erekat, chief election negotiator for the self-governing Palestinian Authority. “We have an election infrastructure similar to that of a European country.”

Now, for the first time in several months, negotiators are speaking optimistically about overcoming the remaining obstacles and signing an agreement on redeployment and another on elections by July 1.

Erekat and other Palestinian officials speak hopefully of holding elections as early as the end of October, although Israeli officials caution that redeployment may take up to a year to complete and say elections are not likely to be held before early 1996.

Palestinian officials say that after so many disappointments and setbacks in the negotiations, the July 1 deadline must be met. Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat has warned that he will call a special meeting of the PLO Executive Committee to reassess Palestinian participation in the peace process if the deadline passes without an agreement being signed.

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Palestinian officials point out that the terms of Israel’s September, 1993, peace accord with the PLO specified that redeployment would occur and elections be held by last July.

The Israelis slowed the pace of the talks after a string of lethal attacks by Islamic militants inside Israel eroded public support for the peace accord and raised questions within Israeli political and security circles about Arafat’s ability to govern his people.

Army generals warned Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin that they could not ensure the safety of Israeli settlers whose homes are scattered across the West Bank once the army pulled out of Palestinian towns and villages and handed security responsibility to the PLO.

Rabin, in turn, told Arafat that Israel would not allow him to expand Palestinian self-rule throughout the West Bank until he demonstrated an ability to curb attacks on Israelis.

Both sides acknowledge that the long delay has damaged public support among Israelis and Palestinians for the 1993 accord. Palestinian officials say they need the Israeli redeployment and elections to reassure Palestinians living in the territories that peace is going to fundamentally change their lives.

Last week in Cairo, a three-day round of negotiations concluded between technical teams working out the transfer of more civilian authority to the Palestinians in the West Bank. Talks are set to resume again next week. Separate talks on elections are planned to take place every few days in Tel Aviv and the West Bank town of Jericho throughout June.

Israeli officials say they have quickened their negotiating pace because they intend to meet the deadline and because the Palestinians are doing a better job of curbing attacks from Palestinian-controlled territory.

A senior Israeli general, briefing Israel’s Parliament on Tuesday, praised Arafat for cracking down on Islamic militants.

Maj. Gen. Matan Vilnai, deputy chief of staff, said that the number of attacks carried out against Israelis in Gaza and the West Bank has fallen dramatically since January. He attributed the drop to stepped-up efforts by both the Israeli army and Palestinian security forces.

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One sign that the negotiating pace is picking up is that some of the talks will now be held in secret, said Joel Singer, head of Israel’s team dealing with Palestinian elections.

Deciding to meet at unannounced locations on undisclosed dates “is a good sign that we have now reached the last stage of the negotiations, where public exposure will not be conducive to the success of the talks,” said Singer, the Foreign Ministry’s legal affairs adviser.

“We will meet as often as it takes,” Erekat said. “I think that we can make the deadline if the political will is there on the Israeli side.”