Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel on Wednesday briefed Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on a meeting he had with the leader of the PLO and offered his help in mediating between Israel and the Palestinians. Shamir, who opposes any dealings with the PLO, did not appear to take Havel up on his offer. Havel, who on his arrival earlier Wednesday became the first Eastern European leader to visit the Jewish state, met with PLO chief Yasser Arafat in Prague this month. ``(Havel) said he has a great interest in this conflict and would like to help. But he knows it is complicated. We did not discuss any specific steps that could be taken by Czechoslovakia in this respect,'' Shamir told reporters. Havel ``told me briefly about his meeting with Arafat,'' Shamir said. He refused to elaborate. Havel, 54, a playwright and former dissident, was quoted by the Hebrew daily Haaretz as saying Arafat assured him that the Palestine Liberation Organization wants Israel to adopt U.S. proposals for starting a Palestinian-Israeli dialogue. Arafat ``stressed repeatedly that he attaches great hopes to my peace mission,'' Havel said, but added he could not vouch for Arafat's sincerity. Shamir's spokesman, Avi Pazner, said no dialogue was possible with Arafat, either directly or through intermediarie. ``What Arafat wants is the disappearance of Israel. Therefore, we don't want to have any dialogue with Mr. Arafat, not direct or indirect,'' Pazner told The Associated Press. Referring to Havel, he added, ``Even if our friend has the best of intentions, we will not take him up on that.'' Havel also met with Foreign Minister Moshe Arens and Shimon Peres, head of the center-left Labor Party. Labor, which supports the U.S. peace proposals, is trying to form a new government. Shamir indicated he asked the Czechoslovak leader to allow Prague to serve as a transit point for flights of Soviet Jewish immigrants bound for Israel. ``We discussed our interest in the help from Czechoslovakia in the efforts to resolve the questions ... of the immigration of Jewish people from the Soviet Union to Israel,'' Shamir said without elaboration. Yosef Govrin, a senior Israeli foreign ministry official, said talks are under way on air connections and that flights could start by summer. Czechoslovakia has said it has been unable to serve as a transit point because it was unable to provide the necessary security. Arab militants have threatened to disrupt flights through East Europe to block the influx of Soviet Jews to Israel. Czechoslovakia and other Eastern European states, with the exception of Romania, followed the Kremlin's lead in cutting ties with Israel after the 1967 Middle East war, in which Israel seized land from Moscow's Arab allies. But Israel now has full diplomatic ties with Romania, Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia as well as low-level ties with the Soviet Union. Negotiations are under way with East Germany and Bulgaria.
