ALBRIGHT, COHEN GET QUICK CONFIRMATION TO U.S. CABINET.

Byline: Associated Press 

The Senate ratified President Clinton's ground-breaking national security team with lightning speed Wednesday, confirming Madeleine Albright as the nation's first female secretary of state and former Republican Sen. William Cohen as defense secretary.

Both won 99-0 approval with no word of doubt or dissent.

``She's a strong lady. She's a courageous lady,'' Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., said of Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during Clinton's first four years in office.

The comments on Cohen were equally laudatory.

``It's a pleasure to participate in your coronation - I mean, your confirmation,'' said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., welcoming back his former colleague.

President Clinton was quick to return the praise to the Senate, saying it ``sent a strong signal to the world of its determination to work in a constructive and bipartisan spirit with the administration on our nation's foreign policy and national defense.''

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., out of the country with a trade mission in Japan, was the only senator not to vote.

The Pentagon scrambled Wednesday to make plans for Cohen to take the oath of office. The full Senate vote came within an hour of unanimous approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Albright's swearing-in was expected as early as today.

``I think the vote truly does signal a new era of bipartisan foreign policy,'' Albright said at the United Nations. ``And now I can't wait to get started.''

Though lavishly endorsing Albright, Helms repeated his blanket disagreement with administration foreign policy. He said he hopes the new secretary of state will turn it around.

``My support for the nomination should in no way be misconstrued as an endorsement of the Clinton foreign policy,'' Helms said. He criticized U.S. actions regarding Haiti, Somalia, Bosnia, China, Iraq and other countries, as well as the administration's support for U.N. funding.

Helms said he expects Albright to work with the Republican-controlled Congress to limit sending U.S. troops abroad, to reform the United Nations and to modernize the State Department.

Pleasantries and warm spirits marked Cohen's appearance before the panel on which he served 18 years as a senator from Maine.

Cohen assured the panel he would maintain his independence as defense secretary. ``Uniformity of opinion within an administration is not an imperative or an ideal even to be sought,'' he said.

He said the president wants ``strong-minded advisers'' to guide him on national security matters.

``I believe my record is one of bridging differences, not papering them over,'' said Cohen, the lone Republican tapped by Clinton as a Cabinet member. ``I have no reservations about my ability to work effectively within the administration.''

In response to questions from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Cohen staked out a firm position on Bosnia, insisting that U.S. forces will remain in Bosnia only for the next 18 months and that European forces will have to take over.