Clinton says Mideast talks toughest of presidency

THURMONT, Md. - President Clinton said Sunday that he is more optimistic about Middle East summit talks than when they began six days ago but said the negotiations are more difficult than any he's dealt with in his presidency.

''God, it's hard,'' Clinton said in the first official assessment of the talks' progress. ''It's like nothing I've ever dealt with. All the negotiations with the Irish, all the stuff I've done with the Palestinians before this and with the Israelis, the Balkans at Dayton.''

But he said he was hopeful that Israelis and Palestinians could reach agreement on the contentious issues that still divide them.

''I'm more optimistic than I was when they first got here,'' he said. ''We might make it - I don't know.

''I would be totally misleading if I said I had an inkling that a deal is at hand,'' he added. ''That's just not true. But we're slogging.''

Clinton made his comments in an interview with the New York Daily News on Sunday after burrowing into details of the talks. He met twice with American mediators and experts, who have grappled with the issues over the long haul. Clinton then held a joint meeting with Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, and he was meeting Sunday evening with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

''What's really troubling is that they (the leaders) know that if they make a peace agreement, half their constituencies will be angry at them for a while,'' he said, according to a transcript released by the White House.

''They're trying,'' the president said. ''It's so hard. My heart goes out to them. It's really hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever seen.''

A news blackout in force since the summit began prohibits the parties from discussing the progress of the talks. But White House spokesman P.J. Crowley said Clinton's comments did not violate the agreement, saying only the United States was allowed to speak about the substance of the talks.

As talks continued, Palestinians floated reports of progress and Israelis dismissed them.

Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, a longtime advocate of accommodation with the Palestinians, told Israel's army radio that talks were at a crossroad.

''It is hard at this point to give some kind of impression of optimism ... because there has not been a breakthrough,'' said Beilin, the architect of the 1993 accords that began Israel's retreat on the West Bank.

Clinton would like to wrap up by late Tuesday an agreement on all key issues, including what is to become of Jerusalem and how much land a Palestinian state will encompass. He is scheduled to fly Wednesday to Japan for an eight-nation economic summit meeting.

Clinton said he hoped to finish up in time for the trip.

Saturday night, Clinton sat at dinner between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. While not disclosing the substance of their talks, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said: ''The dinners have always had a positive feel to them because of the inherent atmosphere.''

But Lockhart added: ''I don't want to create the false impression that because they come together each evening for a meal in a positive atmosphere that that permeates all the discussions.''

Barak entered negotiations prepared to relinquish more land to the Palestinians, give them a foothold in Jerusalem, permit thousands of refugees to be reunited with relatives in Israel and dismantle most Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in Gaza.

At least publicly, Arafat held to his primary demands: a state with its capital in Jerusalem, control of virtually all of the territories and return to Israel of some 2 million Palestinians.

The summit is likely to turn on whether Barak sweetens his offer or Arafat compromises. And the clock is ticking.

Gadi Baltiansky, the Israeli spokesman, said Barak would not like to stay away from Israel for more than two weeks. Barak's political support is shaky. Three parties have quit his coalition government, and Foreign Minister David Levy refused to accompany the prime minister to the summit.

In an emotional breakout at home, Israeli security forces evacuated 30 young Jewish settlers from a renegade West Bank outpost they had set up to protest possible concessions to the Palestinians.

Chanting ''the country must not be lost,'' at least 100,000 protesters massed in Tel Aviv on Sunday to send a strong message to Barak that his people would not accept broad concessions to the Palestinians.

Palestinian delegation sources at Camp David signaled optimism Sunday about concluding an overall accord. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they reported progress on some of the issues on the table. Until now, Palestinian assessments had been largely pessimistic.

But in Jerusalem, several Israeli Cabinet ministers who spoke by telephone with Barak said there was no basis for a claim of progress.

Levy was particularly downbeat.

''I am worried,'' Levy told reporters in Jerusalem. ''The situation there is far from an easy one, and there is no sign that the gaps are narrowing.''

And Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine National Council, told CNN, ''I certainly would not hold my breath because it's not easy.'' She cited the contentious issues of Jerusalem and refugees.

In other developments Sunday:

-A Sunday report in The Washington Post that the United States might spend $15 billion or more over the next few years to implement a peace deal was described as premature by the Senate majority leader. ''I think that's way too high, but we'll just have to see,'' Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said on ''Fox News Sunday.'' He noted that paying resettlement costs for Palestinian refugees bothers some senators.

-The presidential campaigns of Vice President Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush said the candidates were called Saturday by Barak and given updates on the talks. The campaigns characterized the conversations as friendly.

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On the Net: Palestinian Authority: http://www.pna.org/mininfo/

Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

http://www.israel-mfa.gov.il/mfa/home.asp