JERUSALEM?Yasser Arafat decided Tuesday not to attend a key Arab summit, and his Cabinet accused Israel of trying to “blackmail” the Palestinian leader with tough conditions for letting him go. Arafat’s absence could undermine Arab support for the Saudi peace plans in Beirut.

Despite calls by the United States that he let Arafat go to the summit, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said “conditions are not ripe” to do so. He insisted the Palestinian leader call a cease-fire first and that Washington back any Israeli decision to bar Arafat from returning home if there is violence during his absence.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak also decided not to attend after his government accused Israel of “playing games” and imposing “unacceptable conditions” on Arafat’s travel.

That left the gathering without two key voices that support the Saudi plan, which calls for Israel to pull out of all the territories it captured in 1967 in exchange for an end to the Israel-Arab conflict.