HIGHLIGHTS: Egypt Wants Washington To Put Timetable on Palestinian Statehood & Mideast Conference||Israel Threatens Assassination if Saadat is Released||Court Says No Evidence Against Saadat|| STORY: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will urge President Bush this weekend to set a timetable for creation of a Palestinian state and for an end to Israel's hold on the West Bank and Gaza, a senior adviser said Monday. (Read photo caption)

Bush already is on record as the first American president to specifically endorse Palestinian statehood. But Nabil Osman, head of Egypt's state information service, said, "a deadline has to be set. You have to put a timetable on it."

Bush is due to meet with Mubarak on Friday and Saturday. The Egyptian leader also has talks planned with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Bush and Powell have spoken of a vision for peace in the Middle East, centered on Israeli and Palestinian states living side by side. But Mubarak will urge the president to be more specific, Osman told reporters.

Mubarak also will propose the administration draft a framework for the international peace conference the United States hopes to arrange this summer. Otherwise, Osman said, the conference will not succeed.

Mubarak's stress on specifics represents a growing Arab impatience with the pace of U.S. engagement in the Arab-Israeli conflict. What is necessary is "a very serious commitment in terms of issues," Osman said.

PALESTINIAN CABINET BLOCKS SAADAT'S RELEASE

In Gaza, the Palestinian Cabinet late Monday overrode a decision by the Palestinian Supreme Court to release a militant being held in a West Bank prison

Israel had complained that the court's ruling earlier Monday in the case of Ahmed Saadat violated a deal worked out with the United States and Britain, who are supervising Saadat and five other Palestinian prisoners at a prison in Jericho.

In a statement, the Palestinian Cabinet said it respected the court's ruling, but could not implement it because "the Israeli occupation forces closed the city of Jericho immediately after the decision, and (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon's spokesman had threatened to assassinate" Saadat.

The court had said that there was no evidence against Saadat, head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the faction that assassinated an Israeli Cabinet minister last October.

Saadat, four members of the PFLP and a sixth man were taken to Jericho as part of an agreement that ended Israel's 34-day siege of Arafat's office May 1. The six were placed under the supervision of British and U.S. wardens.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the Palestinian Cabinet decision.

PHOTO CAPTION

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was quoted on June 3, 2002 as saying his intelligence services warned U.S. officials about a week before Sept. 11 that Osama bin Laden's network was in the advance stages of executing a significant operation against a U.S. target. Mubarak, shown at the White House March 5, is due to travel to the United States this week for talks with President Bush. Photo by Kevin Lamarque/Reute