SEPTEMBER 03, 19:09 EDT

Arafat Demands East Jerusalem

By MARIAM FAM
Associated Press Writer

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat told Arab foreign ministers on Sunday that he would not accept a peace deal with Israel that did not give the Palestinians control of Jerusalem.

Arafat, speaking at Sunday's opening of a two-day gathering of Arab League foreign ministers, vowed to keep working for a Palestinian state with its capital in Jerusalem, but did not say when he might declare statehood.

He made no reference to a Sept. 13 deadline he had previously set for the declaration. He has since said he is reconsidering the date. Arafat reportedly is under pressure to allow more time for negotiations with Israel after the failure of a U.S.-mediated peace summit in July.

Israel has indicated it might annex parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in response to a declaration of a Palestinian state outside a peace agreement.

``We will not accept an agreement that ends the conflict without getting back all the rights given to us by international resolutions and our lands and holy places,'' Arafat told the session.

``We are going forward with great determination and willingness toward our independence and national sovereignty over our Palestinian lands and establishing our independent Palestinian state and its capital holy Jerusalem, the heart of Palestine, heart of Arabs and heart of believers,'' he said.

The dispute over east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 war and declared part of its capital, derailed the Camp David summit in July and has hampered efforts to revive those talks.

At Camp David, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Palestinians limited control over east Jerusalem, but Arafat held out for sovereignty. The eastern sector of the city contains the third-holiest Islamic shrine as well as sites sacred to Jews and Christians.

Arafat and Barak are scheduled to discuss the peace process in separate meetings with President Clinton on the margins of the U.N. Millennium summit in New York this week.

A draft resolution prepared by Arab League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid backs Arafat on his claim to Jerusalem and his plans to declare statehood, but urges a resumption of the peace talks. The draft also urges the United States to double its efforts to reach a ``just and comprehensive solution'' to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Yousef bin Alawi, Oman's foreign minister, handed over the rotating chairmanship of the Arab League foreign minister's group Sunday to Palestinian representative Farouk Kaddoumi.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, who meets Clinton on Wednesday, added his endorsement to Palestinian claims in Jerusalem in an interview published in the country's four dailies Sunday.

The king, who gave the interview to the papers' editors Friday, vowed to support the Palestinians ``with all our might and potential, backing their efforts to regain their legitimate rights and establish their independent state on their national soil with Jerusalem as its capital.''