A look at Mideast peace conferences with U.S. involvement:

---------------------

Sept. 5-17, 1978, Camp David, Thurmont, Md.:

-Participants: President Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

-Details: Sadat and Begin sign agreements with Carter developing a framework for peace. Under the first, Israel returns the Sinai, occupied in 1967, for peace. Talks fail on the second agreement for an elected authority replacing Israel's military governments in the West Bank and Gaza.

---------------------

March 1979, Washington, DC:

-Participants: Begin, Sadat and Carter

-Details: Israel agrees to give the Sinai back to Egypt, but keep the Gaza Strip. The agreement prompted Arab states to boycott Egypt.

---------------------

Oct. 30-Nov. 1, 1991, Madrid, Spain:

-Participants: President George H.W. Bush, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Secretary of State James Baker, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, Jordanian Foreign Minister Kamel Abu Jaber, chief Palestinian delegate Haider Abdul-Shafi, Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa.

• Details: Bush called for peace with security and diplomatic and economic relations. Direct talks begin among Israel and Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

---------------------

September 1993, Washington:

-Participants: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, PLO executive council member Mahmoud Abbas, President Clinton.

-Details: Witnessed by Clinton and former Presidents Bush and Carter at the White House, Peres and Abbas signed the Oslo accord, which had been negotiated in secret meetings shepherded by a Norwegian group of academics and lower-level officials. The deal included mutual recognition between Israel and Arafat's PLO and allowed for the creation of a Palestinian autonomy government in the West Bank and Gaza. Tough issues — the fate of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees — were left for "final status" talks.

---------------------

Oct. 15-23, 1998, Wye River Conference Centers, Queenstown, Md.:

-Participants: Clinton, Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

-Details: Israel agrees to hand over an additional 13 percent of the West Bank (bringing Palestinian control to about 40 percent), release Palestinian prisoners and lift trade restrictions. Palestinians agree to arrest militants, give up some guns and annul a clause in their charter that negated Israel's right to exist. The sides also agree to report on security cooperation to CIA envoys, which is still in practice.

---------------------

January 2000, Shepherdstown, W.Va.:

-Participants: Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and al-Sharaa.

-Details: The talks fail over details of an Israeli offer to withdraw from the Golan Heights, a strategic enclave captured from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war.

---------------------

July 11-25, 2000, Camp David:

-Participants: Clinton, Arafat and Barak.

-Details: Clinton meets with Arafat and Barak after the deadline for interim accords expires. Israel offers a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of West Bank, with a Jerusalem foothold, but disagreements remain, including a demand by Arafat for a right to resettle Palestinian refugees in Israel. Fighting erupts two months later and the effort eventually collapses.