DATE=03/26/02

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS (L)

NUMBER=2-287982

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE= JERUSALEM

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Israeli and Palestinian officials are seeking clarification of various points of a U-S ceasefire plan that aims to end 18 months of bloodshed. V-O-A Correspondent Laurie Kassman also reports from Jerusalem that Israel is waiting until the last minute to decide whether to let Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat travel to an Arab League summit that opens Wednesday in Beirut.

TEXT: Israeli newspapers predict the government will accept U-S envoy Anthony Zinni's ceasefire framework after it gets clarification of several points.

A trilateral meeting was canceled Monday because Palestinian officials also wanted more time to study the draft. But another meeting is scheduled for later Tuesday, amid speculation in the Israeli media that a ceasefire could be announced.

One key dispute has been over the time allotted for implementation of the truce. Palestinians also want to link the truce to a political process leading back to peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has conditioned Palestinian leader Arafat's travel to the Arab League summit on the ceasefire declaration and on an absence of violence while he is away.

Monday night, Israeli security forces prevented another suicide bombing, when two Palestinians were stopped at a checkpoint near Bethlehem and their car exploded.

Prime Minister Sharon is under increased U-S pressure to let Mr. Arafat go. Bush administration officials fear the summit will be diverted from discussion of a Saudi peace initiative if the Palestinian leader is not there.

But Palestinian officials say Mr. Arafat is reluctant to leave under what he considers unfair conditions and the threat that he may not be allowed to return.

If Yasser Arafat does travel to the Arab League summit, it would be his first visit to Beirut since 1982 when an Israeli invasion led by then-military commander Ariel Sharon forced the Palestinian leader out of Lebanon.

The lingering hostility between the two men is apparent in interviews to be published in several Israeli newspapers on Wednesday.

Mr. Sharon told Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that he made a mistake when he promised not to target Mr. Arafat directly during Israel's recent military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza. And, he told Ma-ariv newspaper he should have demanded Mr. Arafat's expulsion from the region on the grounds he is not a peace partner. (Signed)

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