Baker seeking to draw Palestinians to talks

AMMAN, Jordan Armed with Israel's conditional agreement to a Middle East peace conference, Secretary of State James A. Baker III on Friday sought to convince the Palestinians, the last party yet to agree, that even if they accepted Israel's terms they still stood to gain the most from the process. Baker first met for four hours with three prominent Palestinians in Jerusalem, then flew to the Jordanian capital, Amman, for talks with King Hussein. Under the American plan, the Palestinians would take part in the first stage of the peace conference in a delegation with Jordan. A quick agreement between the Palestinians and Baker had not been expected since, as the Palestinian group made plain, they did not have the authority to accept or reject the restrictions on Palestinian participation raised by the Isra