CIA HELPING OUT IN WAR ON HAMAS.

Byline: Tim Weiner The New York Times

In advance of an international summit meeting on terrorism, top CIA officials will meet this weekend with the chiefs of the Palestinian internal security force and Israel's security police to offer help and encourage the old enemies to cooperate against the suicide bombers of Hamas, U.S. officials said Friday.

The deputy director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, and the ranking CIA counterterrorism experts were in Israel on Friday night and were scheduled to meet today with their opposite numbers in Israel's Shin Bet and the secret police of Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestinian Authority.

Official meetings between a U.S. intelligence official of Tenet's rank and his Palestinian counterpart may be unprecedented, they said.

This unusual level of intelligence sharing and collaboration among the CIA, Shin Bet and the Palestinian secret police is part of an international crackdown against Hamas, its financiers and its factions, they said.

The CIA officials will "step into the room with the Israelis and the Palestinians, put our arms around their shoulders and say: 'Hey, guys, what about this step and this step? Go a little further,' " an American official said.

Neither the CIA nor the Shin Bet knows much about Hamas, its political leadership or its military wings. The Israelis are pressing the Palestinians to interrogate hundreds of prisoners arrested in recent days to obtain more information about the group and the factions whose recent bombing attacks killed 57 people in nine days.

In addition to offering U.S. technical expertise - including information gleaned from satellites and electronic eavesdropping technology - Tenet and the CIA's counterterrorism chief will press the Israelis and the Palestinians, once blood enemies, to share secret intelligence and collaborate against Hamas.

"There has to be very good intelligence gathered by and shared with the Israeli authorities and the Palestinian authorities," Philip Wilcox Jr., the State Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, said in an interview. "A great deal is being done, but this is an area where you can do more."

Wilcox said a second team of counterterrorism experts from the State and Defense departments were to have left the United States for Israel on Friday.

Their assistance is part of a larger package of training, technical help, intelligence, equipment and expertise being provided by the United States and some European allies to Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

The gathering of the U.S., Israeli and Palestinian intelligence officials is in anticipation of the international meeting on terrorism to be held Wednesday at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheik.

Planning to attend are President Clinton, President Boris N. Yeltsin of Russia and leaders from Israel, Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Britain, France, Germany, other European Union nations, the Persian Gulf and North Africa.

American officials said they would press the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority - themselves targets of fundamentalist rage - to work harder to cut off the sources of international financial and political support for Hamas.

They will seek to increase the isolation of Iran, believed to be a source of money and inspiration for Hamas, from its neighbors in the region.

Since the bombings began, the Palestinian secret police have arrested hundreds of militants and raided 30 Islamic institutions. The Palestinian government also arrested Mohammed Abu Wardeh, the suspected recruiter of the suicide bombers, and sentenced him to life in prison.

Arafat has said his goal is to stop the suicide bombings that have damaged the fragile Middle East peace and threatened his authority.

Israel is demanding that Arafat break the back of the bombing campaign. So are members of the U.S. Congress, who are withholding $13 million in aid from the Palestinian Authority and threatening stronger measures if Arafat does not suppress Hamas.

Foreign Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, a former military chief of staff, said Friday that Arafat must stop a fifth attack from taking place. "There is not a lot of time," he said. "It is clear to Arafat that if he does not do what is needed, we will - and soon."

The United States believes that "Arafat is trying, and we are watching to satisfy ourselves that he is trying as hard as he can," a senior administration official said. "To break the back of Hamas is not a one-week enterprise."

The bombings prompted Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman, a New York Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee, to put a hold on $13 million earmarked for the Palestinian Authority.