Gore says Mideast peace efforts 'need a lot of prayers'

DETROIT - Al Gore told campaign supporters Saturday that fresh Mideast peace efforts ''need a lot of prayers'' as he reached out to the sizable Arab-American community on Michigan's electoral battleground.

Juggling his vice presidential duties in the Mideast crisis with his White House race against Republican George W. Bush, Gore began a morning campaign rally on a somber note that was also meant to soothe the Detroit area's 300,000 Arab-Americans.

Clinton had announced hours earlier that he would attend the peace summit convening Monday in Egypt in an attempt to end two weeks of deadly clashes between Israelis and Palestinians.

''I think we need a lot of prayers to make sure that meeting is a success,'' Gore said.

Bush, meanwhile, issued a statement of support Saturday from his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was taking a break from the campaign trail.

''I welcome this development,'' Bush said. ''I hope that Chairman Arafat (Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat) and (Israeli) Prime Minister (Ehud) Barak will do everything possible to stop the violence so that our longstanding goal of peace in the Middle East can be achieved.''

Implicitly addressing some Arab-American concerns that other recent comments of his were too unconditionally supportive of Israel, Gore said:

''As we grieve for those who were affected by the violence there we think not only of the Americans, we think also of the Palestinians and Israelis and the suffering the families on both sides have felt. The scenes have been heart-rending and it is time for us to lift them up in prayers as well.''

Ninety-six people - two Israeli soldiers, and most of the rest Palestinians - have been killed during the past two weeks of violence in the West Bank.

Gore met at the White House Friday evening with three Arab-American leaders who, according to campaign adviser Greg Simon, emphasized to Gore how important it is for the United States ''to maintain its role as an honest broker'' and not choose sides in the Israeli-Palestinian clashes.

Mostly, this campaign weekend was time for the candidates to rest up and prepare for the homestretch battle ahead.

The race remains close. One new national poll by Newsweek released Saturday showed Bush at 45 percent and Gore at 43 percent. Another from CNN-Time had Bush with an edge, 48-43, while the CNN-USA Today-Gallup tracking poll had Bush at 48 percent and Gore at 44 percent. The error margin for the polls was 4 points and they taken after the second debate and amid the international turmoil that may have unpredictable results on the race.

Bush spent a quiet Saturday at his Texas ranch, planning to break for an interview with a Spanish language network, and was scheduled to spend Sunday at the governor's mansion in Austin, preparing for Tuesday's third and final presidential debate. Gore hastened from Detroit back to Washington in time to catch his son's high school football game.

Gore, who interrupted his campaign twice last week to attend top-level White House deliberations on events overseas, was to depart Sunday evening for debate prep in St. Louis, the debate site.

GOP running mate Dick Cheney, spending the weekend at his home in Jackson Hole, Wyo., canceled an early-morning fly-fishing trip because of the icy weather. Cheney returns to the campaign trail Monday, traveling to Missouri and Florida. Democratic running mate Joseph Lieberman was off the campaign trail Saturday for the Jewish Sabbath.