By Thomas W. Lippman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 21, 1998; Page A24

WYE MILLS, Md., Oct. 20—On the sixth day of an extraordinary peace summit between Israel and the Palestinians at a secluded conference center here, the U.S. hosts called in reinforcements -- King Hussein of Jordan, one of the eldest elder statesmen in the Middle East.

The king, who has been at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer, was invited into the talks by President Clinton because Clinton "recognizes the king's unique place in Middle East peace," White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.

From the outside, there was no way to tell whether the king's involvement in meetings with Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat meant that the parties are nearing agreement and Hussein might close the deal or that they remain far apart and his mission is to salvage at least a face-saving accord.

Clinton flew by helicopter to the Wye River conference center today, joining the talks for the fifth time since convening the summit at the White House on Thursday. He has invested dozens of hours in the effort to forge an interim agreement that would open the door to "permanent status" negotiations on the future of the Palestinians. Today, he met separately with Arafat for about 45 minutes, Lockhart said, and was to meet with Netanyahu, after they had seen the king this evening.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin described the negotiations as entering a more serious phase focusing on the central issues of the interim agreement. "It's part of the endgame that is getting more and more serious. Some obstacles have been overcome, but significant gaps remain," he said.

Contrary to its practice on earlier days of the summit, the White House released no photos of the participants today, fueling speculation about the king's health. However, Jordanian officials insisted that Hussein, a veteran pilot, was strong enough to pilot his Gulfstream IV jet from Minnesota to Andrews Air Force Base on Monday.

"King Hussein is a person with great integrity who has warm support among many different people in the Middle East. He is someone who we hope would be able to instill in the two delegations a greater understanding of the need to make the tough choices that are necessary to reach an agreement," Rubin said.

The king's arrival might "change the dynamic" of the negotiations, Rubin said.

In addition to consulting with Hussein, Clinton had a telephone conversation today with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about the status of the talks.

Hussein, who as Jordan's leader decided to join other Arab countries in a war against Israel in 1967, signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994 and is widely admired in Israel for having honored it scrupulously. He has forged a bond of respect with Ariel Sharon, the hard-line former general who recently became Israel's foreign minister. Sharon visited Hussein at the Mayo Clinic last weekend.

But Hussein also has accused Netanyahu, in a bitter March 1997 letter, of reneging on Israel's Oslo commitments to the Palestinians, deceiving him personally and pushing the region toward "an abyss of bloodshed and disaster."

As has been true since the talks began Thursday, few substantive details have emerged through the news blackout imposed by the White House to keep the parties from negotiating through the media.

However, members of the Palestinian delegation told reporters that they continue to insist on reaching agreement on the full package of issues under discussion here, including the release of prisoners held by Israel and a commitment by Israel to a further troop pullback beyond the one already agreed to in principle here.

On Monday, after a terrorist grenade attack on an Israeli bus station, Israeli delegates had talked of a "partial" agreement, but today a U.S. official said that proposal is "off the agenda."

According to Rubin, the negotiations have been complicated by the insistence of both sides on raising issues outside the "peace for security" package that the Americans designed as the basis for discussion.

"What you find is, each one of the sides links one step not just to the other, but to a third and fourth and a fifth thing," Rubin said. "You would be surprised how every issue can be on the front burner."

Under the summit ground rules, according to U.S. officials, no understandings or agreements on specific points are final until all agreements are final -- a formulation that allows matters already decided to be reopened. The issues still to be decided, Israeli sources said, include the release of Palestinian prisoners, modification of the Palestinian charter or covenant to remove calls for Israel's destruction and a "time out" on Israeli settlement construction.

Under the 1994 Oslo agreement, these issues ought to have been settled long ago and the "permanent status" talks well under way, with a May 4 deadline. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting in Wednesday's edition that the U.S. side here is proposing to reconvene the summit in April to assess what to do about that deadline.