WASHINGTON - In a high-risk bid to bring peace to the Middle East, President Clinton announced Wednesday Israeli and Palestinian leaders would meet with him next week at the Camp David presidential retreat to try to reach an accord by mid-September.
After seven years of negotiations, Clinton said the two sides were at an impasse, and that the issues were more complex than on any other Mideast negotiating front. But, he said, ''I think if we work hard we can get it done in a few days.''
Clinton said both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat endorsed his approach as the last best chance of shaping a settlement.
''Etched in each side's mind are intense fears and emotions and deep-seated commitment to defend their peoples' interests. There are no easy answers and certainly no painless ones and therefore there is clearly no guarantee of success,'' Clinton said in the White House briefing room.
With six months left in his term, Clinton hopes to make a Middle East peace agreement part of his presidential legacy. His efforts have been slowed by traditional Arab-Israeli enmity.
Clinton's venture mirrors former President Jimmy Carter's hosting of a summit at Camp David in 1978 between the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.
The result was a peace treaty the next year, the first between Israel and an Arab nation.
Clinton praised Arafat and Barak for agreeing to the summit and said courage was required from both as well as a realization neither could have 100 percent of his demands satisfied
''To delay this gathering, to remain stalled, is simply no longer an option,'' Clinton said.
The announcement followed an intense effort by Clinton and his advisers to bring the parties together.
Shortly before Clinton appeared in the briefing room, Saeb Erekat, one of the Palestinian negotiators, said he had not been informed that a summit would be convened soon. Barak was in Europe, holding talks with British and French leaders. Barak said in Paris that he hoped to meet a Sept. 13 deadline for a framework agreement on Middle East peace, although those efforts are far behind schedule.
After conferring with French President Jacques Chirac, Barak said the peace process is entering a ''crucial period'' of both risks and opportunities
Clinton tried holiday weekend telephone diplomacy to promote the summit, which Israel favors, despite Palestinian reservations.
The objective is to negotiate a framework for peace, with the two sides reported far from agreement on major issues, including the question of Israeli withdrawal from territory it has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War with the Arabs.
The two sides had earlier agreed that there would be a final status agreement by the Sept. 13 deadline, to set the lines for a permanent peace accord. Arafat has said he will declare a Palestinian state on that date unless there are conclusive settlement negotiations before then. Barak said Wednesday that the Palestinians should not make any unilateral moves to declare an independent state, warning that could lead Israel to act unilaterally, too.
The president said that if both sides work hard they could finish their work in ''several days,'' though he did not impose a specific timetable. He said he may move back and forth between Camp David and his work in Washington.
''I will be there a lot and I'll work as hard as I need to work,'' the president said.
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