If the United States does not offer practical and "even-handed" solutions to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the volatile Middle East may soon yield to terrorism, the Crown Prince of Jordan said at an Institute of Politics forum yesterday.

Speaking before an audience of about 450 people, Prince Al Hassan bin Talal called on the U.S. to develop "practical approaches" to the Middle East conflict that would recognize the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as a legitimate representative of Palestinians.

"American policy has not been characterized by consistency, coherence, objectivity or resolution," said Al Hassan. "Successive administrations have engaged in what might be described as the politics of gesture, rather than the development of practical approaches, to resolve the most multi-dimensional conflict of the century."

In order to compose an initial settlement, said Al Hassan, Jordan has requested the formation of a multinational conference under the auspices of the United Nations, which would stress regional economic cooperation to bolster political stability.

But he added that if the apathy that now characterizes international attitudes toward conflict in Lebanon extends to the Arab-Israeli struggle, terrorism may begin to fill the void.

"Unless peace prevails, there will be a different kind of war to contend with, a war that knows no territorial or national boundaries--it is a war waged against the nation-state," said Al Hassan. "The object is radical, the means are drastic, and the outcome will be catastrophic...The only triumphant residue will be politicoreligious fundamentalism--Islamic, Christian and Jewish."

Al Hassan said that prerequisites for formal talks include the participation of Palestinians, either through the PLO or Jordan, as well as the with drawal of Israel from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Only these measures can bring about "the exercise of the right to national self-determination," Al Hassan said.

One vehicle for Palestinian sovereignty, he said, might be found in the Israeli proposal for elections in the West Bank and Gaza, but these will be effective only if Israel honors all results, allows international supervision of voting and guarantees candidates freedom to campaign.

But until such proposals are finalized, said Al Hassan, Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza must live in constant turmoil.

"If for [other nations] the question is one of 'pay now or pay later,' the question now for people who are suffering there is 'pay now and pay later,'" he said. "We, in Arab vernacular, are hell's firewood."