Jerusalem ? Palestinian and Israeli leaders separately pondered a U.S. truce proposal Monday, while the United States pressed a reluctant Israel to let Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat attend this week’s Arab summit in Beirut regardless of whether a cease-fire is reached.

The Israelis and Palestinians held separate consultations late Monday night, with U.S. officials pressing for quick answers about their ideas to bridge gaps over implementing a truce plan negotiated last June by CIA Director George Tenet.

After talking with Arafat, Palestinians said they would meet with U.S. envoy Anthony Zinni today to discuss the U.S. bridging proposals, including asking for some changes.

Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Palestinians would request linking the cease-fire to a plan for peace talks, reopening Palestinian institutions in Jerusalem and eliminating an Israeli requirement that a truce must be called before Arafat attends the summit.

After a meeting that lasted into the early hours this morning, Israeli leaders decided to ask for clarifications about two issues: arrest of suspected militants and confiscation of illegal Palestinian weapons, Army Radio reported.

A ‘Palestinian right’

U.S. officials said Zinni was trying to arrange a three-way meeting for today.

Meanwhile, time was running out for an Israeli decision about whether Arafat would travel to the Beirut summit, which begins Wednesday.

The Palestinian leadership said Arafat’s participation is a “Palestinian right and the Palestinian leadership rejects any Israeli blackmail.”

Jibril Rajoub, a senior Palestinian security official, claimed that Arafat’s participation in the summit was “100 percent assured.”

Sharon aide Raanan Gissin told The Associated Press that the decision would be made today or possibly Wednesday morning.

Sharon has insisted that a cease-fire be in place before Arafat leaves the Palestinian areas. Israel controls entry and exit.

Even if Arafat is allowed to go to the summit, Sharon has threatened not to allow him to return if there are terror attacks.

Responding, Arafat told ABC News, “Is there any law to prevent to me to came back to my homeland? This is my right.”

Arafat also said Palestinians were the victims of terrorism.

“We are the only people now who are under occupation, can you understand what’s the meaning of that? … The real terrorism is this occupation.”

President Bush has called on Sharon to consider allowing Arafat to attend.

Endorsing peace

At the United Nations, spokesman Fred Eckhard said Secretary-General Kofi Annan was seeking Arafat’s attendance because the meeting is “expected to endorse an important peace proposal.”

For three months, Israeli tanks confined Arafat to his West Bank headquarters in Ramallah; Israel eased the restrictions two weeks ago, allowing him to travel freely in the Palestinian areas, but he has still not left the Ramallah area.

The Palestinian issue is to be a focus of the two-day Arab League summit, where Saudi Arabia is to present a proposal for Mideast peace.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa said the summit also would address the occupation of Arab land, threats against an unspecified Arab country a reference to U.S. threats of military action against Iraq, and threats to Islamic culture.

According to a text sent to the Palestinians, the peace proposal calls for an end to the Israel-Arab conflict in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from lands it captured in the 1967 war the West Bank, Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem, Golan Heights and a tiny parcel of disputed land on the Lebanon border.

Israel’s government rejects a total withdrawal. There is also a hot dispute over the difficult issue of the nearly 4 million Palestinian war refugees and their descendants that is not resolved by the Saudi proposal.

Arab foreign ministers met Monday in Beirut under tight security and were said to be working on phrasing to address that issue.

A three-stage process

Sharon presented his own peace plan with the Palestinians on Monday. He told members of his Likud party that he favors a three-stage process, starting with a cease-fire, then an open-ended partial agreement and finally talks on a peace accord. He did not give details.

Saudi officials said they would leave it up to the Palestinians to decide whether their initiative would be discussed at the summit if Arafat is not allowed to attend.

In Beirut, Palestinian Economics and Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said the Saudi proposal was a “good step to achieve peace in the region, if the Israelis accept it.

Arafat talked by telephone to Secretary of State Colin Powell, an Arafat aide said.

Gissin said Israel was ready to ease its demand that implementation of the cease-fire be spread over four weeks, while the Palestinians insist on two weeks. There has also been a dispute over what comes first Israel ending its closures on Palestinian areas or the Palestinians cracking down on militants.

“We have no problem taking two weeks,” said Gissin, “the question is the actual intention to implement it.” He said that so far there has been “no stopping of suicide bombers,” and that would make it difficult to enforce a truce.

There has been a growing clamor from some Israeli Cabinet ministers to step up military pressure on the Palestinians should the truce effort fail.

But Israeli Defense Ministry spokesman Yarden Vatikay denied a report in The Washington Post that the Israeli military was preparing a large-scale offensive in Palestinian towns and refugee camps if the cease-fire talks break down. “There are no such preparations,” he said.

In Gaza Monday, a Palestinian was killed in an explosion in his house in a refugee camp, Palestinians said. It appeared that he was preparing a bomb. Earlier, a 19-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli gunfire in Rafah during an Israeli incursion. The Israeli military said soldiers were looking for tunnels used to smuggle arms in from Egypt.

In the West Bank, the body of a Palestinian man was found by a road. The army was checking whether the man was connected with a bomb explosion Sunday, which was thought to have been aimed at a passing Israeli bus.