Seeking Support, Peres Visits Washington

TEL AVIV, Israel--Prime Minister Shimon Peres flew to Washington yesterday to meet President Reagan and to try to gain U.S. backing for the accord between Israel and Egypt calling for an international conference on the Middle East.

"A primary purpose in my trip will be to work out with the United States a peace policy for the future," Peres told reporters at Ben-Gurion International Airport. "The time has come to spell out what are the needed peace initiatives."

Peres, scheduled to meet Reagan today, also has arranged meetings with Vice President George Bush and Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington, in addition, is trying to arrange a meeting between Peres and Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, government officials said.

Shevardnadze will be in the United States attending the United Nations General Assembly. Asked about any meeting, Peres told reporters he did not know if Shevardnadze had agreed.

Peres' weeklong trip will include stops in New York and Ottawa.

The prime minister's visit comes a month before he is due to swap jobs with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir of the conservative Likud bloc under a power-sharing pact between Likud and the left-of-center Labor Party.

Last week, Peres and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held a two-day summit in Alexandria, Egypt. They agreed Friday to form a preparatory committee for convening an international peace conference.

A U.S. government official, who demanded anonymity, said in Washington after the summit that the United States was cool to any plan that would include the Soviet Union in an international forum. Likud members of Peres' government also voiced opposition to an international meeting during yesterday's regular Cabinet meeting.

But Peres said at the airport: "I don't see any argument between us and America on this topic."

Peres is seeking an international forum in an effort to recruit Jordan into the peace process. Jordan has made it clear it will not join peace talks without the support of the superpowers and all the parties involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict, including the Palestinians.

Peres said Israel and the United States "agree on the need to accompany direct negotiations with an international forum, a forum that cannot impose anything and that doesn't replace direct negotiation."

Israel has also opposed Soviet involvement in an international peace conference unless Moscow renews ties with the Jewish state that it severed 19 years ago after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Peres predicted the Soviets might reject Israel's terms. "We will either see that the Russians are ready to accept the necessary conditions to join...or it [the Soviet Union] will continue its refusal, then we all will have to look for alternatives."

Peres said the United States need not fear that Soviet involvement in an international conference would erode American influence in the Middle East.

"Anyone who looks at the record will see that the American eagle is quicker than the Russian bear," he said.