ALBRIGHT, FRENCH OFFICIAL STRESS COUNTRIES' TIES.

Byline: The New York Times

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Foreign Minister Herve de Charette went out of their way Monday evening to pronounce a working truce in the sometimes strained relations between America and France, praising the two countries' long alliance.

As the two diplomats made nods to the other's self-esteem, Albright made a point of speaking the language of the host country in her remarks and some of her answers to reporters' questions, at one point suggesting, in French, that the next question go to a French journalist.

De Charette praised Albright as ``a very great lady representing a very great country.'' He said that both countries agreed on the aims of NATO's enlargement and would work together amicably before the alliance's summit meeting in Madrid in July.

Albright called bilateral relations ``very solid and warm,'' and she was careful to say that Washington wanted to see France fully integrated into NATO, which Paris decided it would do only last year after decades of political alliance but a separate military command.

Since then, ties have been tested by French demands that a European general run NATO's Southern Command, which includes America's 6th Fleet. U.S. officials have consistently refused, and talks with French officials about dividing the command or creating another European command within NATO - possibly a European rapid-reaction force - have not made much progress.

Concerning NATO, de Charette played down, at least in public, a French suggestion for a five-party summit meeting in April with Russia and other key alliance members - Britain, France, Germany and the United States. The suggestion has been criticized by the NATO members left out, like Italy.

Albright repeated the American position that it is more important now to concentrate on the ``substance'' of a proposed NATO-Russian charter, and not the ``process'' of how and when talks go on with Moscow.