By
The Associated Press
NEW YORK - President Clinton labored yesterday to impress Israeli and Palestinian leaders with a sense of urgency as their deadline for a settlement loomed over the horizon, only a week away.
Holding back-to-back meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, the president faced long odds in trying to relaunch his flagging peace process and bid for a peacemaker's place in history.
With the Israeli and Palestinian leaders far apart on the core issues and exchanging acrimonious sallies, Clinton all but gave up on achieving a settlement by Sept. 13, the deadline they set last year with his blessing.
"I think we can work through that if there is a sense of progress," Clinton said as he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the fringes of a U.N. Millennium Summit that has brought scores of government leaders here.
"The main thing they have to decide," he said of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, is that "they are going to have an agreement by what is the real calendar - which is the clock that is ticking in the Middle East."
Pressing in on Clinton are a meeting Saturday of the Palestine Liberation Organization's Central Council in Gaza City and a session next month of the Israeli Knesset where critics of Barak for his offers to Arafat of nearly all the occupied territory and control over part of Jerusalem have stirred outrage.
The top item at the Palestinian meeting is whether to declare statehood on the West Bank land Israel has already turned over to the Palestinians. Arafat plans to attend, which limits Clinton's running room here.
As Clinton headed into back-to-back meetings with Barak and Arafat, he cautioned that the opportunity for a peace agreement "is fleeting and about to pass."
The president appealed to world leaders attending a unique Millennium summit to support peace in the Middle East. He also set up meetings with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and King Abdullah of Jordan to try to rally Arab support.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met in the meantime with Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and Prince Saud, the Saudi foreign minister.
She set up a meeting with Arafat before Clinton's, and talked for 45 minutes with Barak on Tuesday night.
"To those who have supported the right of Israel to live in security and peace, to those who have championed the Palestinian cause these many years, let me say to all of you: They need your support now more than ever to take the hard risks for peace," Clinton said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
"They have the chance to do it," he said, "but like all life's chances, it is fleeting and about to pass. There is not a moment to lose."
Clinton's appeal sought to mute the two sides' exchange of accusations of inflexibility and backsliding. Those arguments dimmed prospects that Clinton would succeed in the few days he will be in New York with the two leaders.
The president has virtually abandoned hopes for convening another summit as he did at his Camp David mountain retreat in July and he may not even attempt to bring the two leaders together in light of their sharp differences.
Arafat sought support from Canada, meanwhile, in a meeting with Prime Minister Jean Chretien. Afterward, a Canadian official said Arafat planned to meet with Barak.
Barak's office issued a tough statement Tuesday night saying a breakthrough was not possible unless Arafat struck an "open and realistic" stance.
The statement, issued after he saw Albright, said `"he agreed they still had not heard of a real change in Chairman Arafat's position since Camp David."
While it was not a joint statement, a senior U.S. official said, the administration was looking for both sides to take realistic stands and make the necessary decisions for an agreement.
On the Palestinian side, senior negotiator Saeb Erekat told Americans for Peace Now, a dovish group, in Washington on Tuesday that there had been "major retrenchments" in Israel's positions since Clinton hosted the two leaders.
Among the tough core issues still eluding resolution are the future of east Jerusalem, which Arafat demands be put under Palestinian sovereignty, and the disposition of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.
