DIPLOMACY

By DOUGLAS WALLER/WASHINGTON

Call her a scold, but if Israeli Prime Minister BENJAMIN NETANYAHU and P.L.O. leader YASSER ARAFAT are still refusing to get off the dime on peace talks by the time she arrives in the Middle East next month, Secretary of State MADELEINE ALBRIGHT plans to give them the not-so-diplomatic treatment she's becoming famous for: a blunt talking-to and a rap on the knuckles. Washington is frustrated with the game of diplomatic chicken that both sides have been playing. In several major speeches, Albright plans to lay out "what road they're headed down" if the talks remain deadlocked, says an official, and "why if they don't change we can't be expected to change things for them."

--By Douglas Waller/Washington