Pre-Summit talks this weekend to include Albright, Ross

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- -- Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will arrive in Washington this weekend for meetings with U.S. officials in advance of next Tuesday's summit at Camp David, the State Department announced Thursday.

The "advance discussions," which are expected to include sessions with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and US Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, are billed as "pre-summit" discussions over "fundamental issues" at stake in the push for a comprehensive peace agreement.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat begin their three-way talks with President Clinton Tuesday at Camp David, the presidential retreat nestled in the mountains of Maryland.

This weekend's discussions will address permanent status issues on the agenda for next week's summit: the borders of a Palestinian state, refugees, water rights - and the most thorny issue of all, the future status of Jerusalem. But State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher pointed out these pre-summit talks are "not a continuation" of previous negotiations between the two sides and "not agenda setting" for the actual impending summit.

"Knowing the leaders are coming changes the dynamic," he said.

President Clinton said on Wednesday that Tuesday's summit could last "several says," but US officials have not ruled out the parties remaining at Camp David after the president's departure for the G-8 economic summit in Japan.

The summit has put a wrench in Secretary Albright's long-standing plans to attend a G-8 foreign ministers meeting in the southern Japanese city of Miyazaki. President Clinton has asked her to remain at Camp David with the parties. Albright has asked Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott to represent the United States at that meeting in her place.

But Japan is frowning on the decision. Deputy Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshiji Nogami said Thursday Albright's absence could damage Washington's influence at the meeting.

"It would be difficult for the US view to have its way because the United States will be represented by a non-minister at a ministerial meeting," he said.

The city of Miyazaki has responded in kind, canceling plans to name a new civic center after the US Secretary of State.

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