WASHINGTON — Monica Goodling, a senior Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said the lawyer, John Dowd.

"One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby," he said, a reference to the recent conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff in the CIA leak case.

The White House, meanwhile, continued to stand by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales despite new calls over the weekend for his resignation and documents that indicate he may have been more involved in the dismissals than he has previously acknowledged.

Democrats have accused the Justice Department and the White House of purging the prosecutors for political reasons. The Bush administration maintains the firings were not improper because U.S. attorneys are political appointees.

ISRAELIS, PALESTINIANS AGREE TO TALKS, U.S. SAYS

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed Monday to resume open-ended, face-to-face talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a possible step toward restarting substantive peace talks, a U.S. official said.

Olmert and Abbas will initially hold low-key "confidence-building" sessions, the official said. Israel has refused substantive talks since Abbas, a moderate leader whom Israel has called a partner for peace, joined Hamas militants in a coalition government this month.

The talks between the Palestinian and Israeli leaders will be open to all issues, said the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of a planned address by Rice on Tuesday.

Israel, the United States and the European Union consider Hamas a terrorist group.

IRAN QUESTIONING SEIZED BRITISH SAILORS

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Monday it was questioning 15 British sailors and marines to determine if their alleged entry into Iranian waters was "intentional or unintentional" before deciding what to do with them — the first sign it could be seeking a way out of the standoff.

The two countries continued to disagree about where the military personnel were seized Friday, with Britain insisting they were in Iraqi waters after searching a civilian cargo vessel and the Tehran regime saying it had proof they were in Iranian territory.

Britain's Defense Ministry said they were seized in the Shatt al-Arab, a waterway flowing into the Persian Gulf that marks the border between Iran and Iraq. But the dividing line in the waterway, known in Iran as the Arvand river, has long been disputed.

The Iranian emphasis Monday on the detainees' intent was a noticeable pullback from the certainty expressed Saturday by Iran's military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar. Afshar said then that the 15 confessed to "aggression into the Islamic Republic of Iran's waters."

Other Iranian officials suggested afterward that the Britons might be charged with a crime — presumably espionage or trespassing — for knowingly entering Iran's territorial waters.

COMMON GROUND SOUGHT ON IRAN'S NUCLEAR PLANS

VIENNA, Austria — A top European envoy on Monday renewed an offer from six world powers to talk with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions, and a senior Iranian negotiator agreed to stay in contact in an effort to find common ground.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana's telephone conversation with Ali Larijani, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator, was the first exchange between the representatives of Iran and the international community since the U.N. Security Council toughened its anti-Iran sanctions because of the Islamic republic's refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.

Solana spokeswoman Cristina Gallach emphasized it was not a negotiating session but more a message to the Iranian side that the international community was interested in "renewing ... talks and solving in a negotiated matter" differences separating the sides.

The conversation, which Gallach said lasted nearly an hour, came amid signs of impatience from Russia and China, Iran's traditional allies among the five permanent Security Council members.

The presidents of the two countries, whose resistance to tough penalties against Iran have forced the United States, France and Britain to accept watered down U.N. sanctions, jointly urged Tehran to fulfill council demands.

STUDY SAYS MOST ANGIOPLASTIES NOT NEEDED

NEW ORLEANS — More than half a million people a year with chest pain are getting an unnecessary or premature procedure to unclog their arteries because drugs are just as effective, suggests a landmark study that challenges one of the most common practices in heart care.

The stunning results found that angioplasty did not save lives or prevent heart attacks in nonemergency heart patients.

An even bigger surprise: Angioplasty gave only slight and temporary relief from chest pain, the main reason it is done.

"By five years, there was really no significant difference" in symptoms, said Dr. William Boden of Buffalo General Hospital in New York. "Few would have expected such results."

He led the study and gave results Monday at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology. They also were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine and will be in the April 12 issue.

EMINEM, EX-WIFE AGREE TO PLAY NICE IN PUBLIC

Rap superstar Eminem and his ex-wife agree to be nice to each other in public

MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. — Eminem and Kim Mathers agreed Monday not to criticize each other in public for the sake of their daughter.

The decision was made following a court hearing in which the 34-year-old rap superstar and his ex-wife agreed that insulting each other could prove harmful to their 11-year-old daughter, Hailie.

Eminem filed a motion in Macomb County Circuit Court earlier this month that sought to prevent Mathers from making "derogatory, disparaging, inflammatory and otherwise negative comments" about him in the media.

Mathers, who has twice married and divorced the rapper, blasted Eminem in recent TV and radio interviews, including one on a Detroit radio station in which she said he was unfaithful and uncaring — and disparaged his sexual prowess.