Unyielding Mideast Attitudes Make a Shambles of U.S. Peace Initiative : Diplomacy: Baker, leaving Israel early because of his mother’s death, says the effort will continue. But Jerusalem reports scant progress.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III, cutting short a visit to Israel on word of his mother’s death, indicated Friday that efforts to set up Middle East peace talks will continue, although Israeli officials reported progress only on marginal issues.

“There are still some things that we have to reach agreement on, and we will be continuing,” Baker told reporters.

The secretary of state, on his second visit to Israel in a week, met with Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister David Levy before rushing to the airport for an afternoon flight home.

There was little doubt that Baker’s plan for a conference to launch face-to-face negotiations between Israel and Arab states and between Israel and the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is a shambles.

In three visits to the Middle East in just over six weeks, Baker has found little evidence to support the Bush Administration’s fervent hope that the Persian Gulf War and the defeat of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has changed fundamental attitudes in the region and made Arab-Israel peace possible.

After the morning session with Levy, Baker said disagreements still exist over details of the proposed meetings and over points that Baker had wanted clarified following his visit to Israel a week ago.

“The minister has given me some answers to some of the questions that I left here when I departed,” Baker declared as Levy stood at his side on the grounds of the Foreign Ministry. “Some of those answers I think we can work with. Others we will have difficulty with, quite frankly.”

Baker was trying to negotiate away some of the difficulties with Shamir when his wife, Susan, telephoned him to tell him of the death of his mother.

He abruptly terminated his meeting with Shamir and canceled scheduled sessions with Defense Minister Moshe Arens and a group of Palestinian leaders.

Baker’s mother, Bonner Means Baker, 96, died in Houston of a heart attack, said a spokesman for the Methodist Hospital there.

Avi Pazner, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, seconded Baker’s prediction that talks will resume at an unspecified date.

Pazner declined to give details of the Shamir-Baker round. “I can only say that due to the fact that the talks were interrupted in the middle, nothing was concluded between the prime minister and Mr. Baker,” he said.

Baker arrived Thursday night from a brief trip to the Soviet Union, where he received a Soviet agreement to co-sponsor a regional peace gathering. Baker began his third round of Middle East shuttle diplomacy in Israel last week and then moved on to Jordan, Egypt, Kuwait and Syria before returning to Israel.

The results of his barnstorming tour were mixed. Along the way, Baker announced that Saudi Arabia would not participate in a regional conference. Nine hours of talks with Syrian leader Hafez Assad produced a restatement of Syria’s demand for a conference under sponsorship of the United Nations. Jordan and Egypt appeared to endorse the plan.

Israel made some concessions at the margins of Baker’s proposal although the Shamir government seemed at odds with itself over just what it had agreed to and might finally accept.

In his seven weeks of diplomatic leg work, much energy and mileage have been invested by Baker with little to show. Before he arrived, Israeli officials fretted that he might give up--and place some of the blame on them. Early Friday, Baker told reporters he was not sure when or if he would be returning to the region.

Whether or not he returns, he seems to be in no hurry to do so. For one thing, Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh is expected to begin his own Middle East tour soon, probably next week. Baker probably will let the Soviet official carry the burden for a while.

Baker and Bessmertnykh agreed during their meeting Thursday in the Soviet town of Kislovodsk to cooperate in trying to bring the Israelis and Arabs to a conference that the United States and the Soviet Union would co-sponsor.

Israel insists that an opening session that includes outside powers as well as Israel and Arab states quickly give way to face-to-face talks involving only Israel and its Arab neighbors. With this condition in mind, Levy’s office ponderously dubbed the proposed talks “A Regional Conference for Direct Peace Negotiations.”

Levy also released a list of points on procedure on which the United States and Israel supposedly saw eye to eye:

Europe can participate in the opening meeting although its role is yet undefined, according to the list. The Soviet Union can also take part. Although it is possible for the regional meeting to be reconvened every six months or so, the outside powers would not have the right to break deadlocks or even make suggestions on ways to reach results. Israel could block a recall of the plenary meeting.

No sooner had Levy’s office leaked the points of agreement than government spokesmen began to warn reporters off. Israel was still conditioning Soviet participation on Moscow’s agreement to open full diplomatic relations with the Jewish nation, a government spokesman said. European participation had not been ruled out, but neither was it set for sure. Details on how the outside powers would be “kept in touch” with negotiators from Israel and the Arab world were not worked out.

“In short, the next step is not clear,” said the spokesman.

Political disputes within Shamir’s government may explain the reluctance to fully endorse any position, even on issues far from the core issues of peace. Defense Minister Arens, a rival of Levy in the race to succeed the aging Shamir, was reported by Israel Radio to be unhappy with the Levy-Baker talks.

Fringe right-wing parties that give Shamir his ruling majority in Parliament were suspicious even without knowing the details. Yuval Neeman, the science minister and representative of one such party, threatened that the government could collapse over the U.S.-Israeli agreements.

Baker and the Israelis steered clear of the question of whether the United Nations will have a role. Israel distrusts the United Nations, and the United States’ attitude is ambiguous. Although the Bush Administration has made no move to include the U.N. Security Council in its diplomatic maneuvering, it nonetheless frames hopes for a settlement in U.N. resolutions that call for Israel’s withdrawal from occupied land in return for peace and security.

No mention was made Friday of an issue that would surely shake the government: who will represent the Palestinians. Israel wants to block participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization and anyone who lives in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem that Israel annexed after the 1967 Middle East War.

Baker was scheduled to meet with three Palestinians, all of whom claim to be passing messages to and from the PLO. One of the three lives in Jerusalem.

The Palestinians handed a memorandum to the U.S. Consulate in which they demanded that the United States take firm steps to stop the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and end the takeover of land belonging to Palestinians.

At Baker’s request, they provided a report which claimed that, since Baker began visiting the region, Israel has confiscated 17,000 acres of land on the West Bank.

The delegates hinted that they are under strong pressure to stop meeting with Baker if the Israelis continue developing the disputed territory. The government has established two new settlements during the last month, each on the eve of a Baker visit.

“The time is approaching when no one from the territories will be able to come and talk peace if these activities continue,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a university educator from the West Bank and a member of the Palestinian panel.

Times staff writer Norman Kempster contributed to this article.