ON THE ISRAEL-JORDAN BORDER -- In a carpeted tent symbolically pitched astride their desert border, Israeli and Jordanian peace negotiators on Monday held a historic round of talks and vowed to seek a lasting peace treaty.


The negotiations, broadcast live on television in Jordan and Israel, tackled key differences on borders, water and economic issues before a summit next Monday of Israeli and Jordanian leaders with U.S. President Bill Clinton in Washington.


"It is our expectation that the satisfactory results of the negotiations and accepted agreements will culminate in a treaty of peace," said Ambassador Faiz Tarawneh, the head of Jordan's 11-member delegation.


Blessing the start of the meeting in Arabic and Hebrew, Israeli delegation head Elyakim Rubinstein said "this meeting takes place in a tent. The tent is tentative. But peace should be permanent."


He said the forthcoming summit between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Jordan's King Hussein next Monday would help break the "psychological barrier" that separated Arabs and Jews.


In remarks aimed equally at Syria as at Jordan, Rubinstein defined the sort of peace Israel seeks: "Peace must include, of course, the whole range of relations -- diplomatic and economic, including free trade and abolition of boycott."


The Arab world has shunned Israel since its creation in 1948 and imposed economic and travel bans against dealing with the Jewish state.


The two delegations made up of diplomats and senior military officers gathered in a festive yellow-and-white tent outfitted with Persian rugs and air conditioning to ease the sizzling 40-degree Celsius heat.


The smiles were broad, the handshakes vigorous and the atmosphere easy. But outside the tent, Jordanian reporters and officials remained on their side of the border. Israelis on theirs.


The camp straddles the border in an undisputed area 20 kilometers from Jordan's Aqaba port and Israel's Eilat tourist resort on the Red Sea.


Marwan Muasher, spokesman for the Israeli delegation, said the Israeli speech was "positive" and that a good atmosphere had been created.


The talks moved Israel a significant step closer to peace with the Arab world and could provide momentum to help U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher who arrived Monday in a new effort to break an impasse in Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations.


Some reports said negotiators could come up with a draft agreement to be signed at the summit next week. But it seemed unlikely that Hussein would be willing to take the final step before Syria, his powerful northern neighbor, does so as well. Tarawneh, Jordan's ambassador to Washington, told reporters the process of getting a peace treaty would be "long and it won't be easy."


In his speech, he suggested Jordan did not seek a separate agreement with Israel but a "comprehensive peace" that would bring "tangible results" to all Arab countries.


He also referred to a survey of the border that was planned, emphasizing Jordan's demand for the return of about 390 square kilometers of land -- an area about the size of the new Palestinian autonomy zone in Gaza and Jericho.


Rubinstein, who like Tarawneh spoke in English, said in his opening remarks that the future held the promise of joint projects for tourism and desalinating water in Wadi Arava, the valley connecting the Dead Sea and the Red Sea.


There is water rationing in Jordan, and supplies are carefully controlled in Israel.