ALBRIGHT GAINS BACKING FROM BUSH : EX-PRESIDENT BACKS ADMINISTRATION ON CHEMICAL WEAPONS TREATY, U.N. POLICY.

Byline: Steven Lee Myers The New York Times

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright received strong backing Saturday from former President George Bush for a treaty to ban chemical weapons, as well as for an increase in spending on foreign affairs and a plan by the Clinton administration to repay the United States' debt to the United Nations.

Appearing with Albright after breakfast at his home, Bush said the United States needed to approve the treaty banning chemical weapons before it went into effect in April.

More than 60 nations have already ratified it, but the Senate has resisted bringing it to a vote.

Bush's support was hardly surprising; the treaty was negotiated during his term in office.

But for Albright, the public expression of support from a Republican former president was a culmination of a two-day visit here intended to infuse the administration's foreign policy with the aura of bipartisanship.

Bush's remarks also supported the administration in some of the more contentious matters of foreign policy it faces with Republicans in Congress. Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has made it clear that he will hold up approval of the chemical weapons treaty until the administration agrees to support changes he wants in the State Department and at the United Nations.

``This should be beyond partisanship,'' Bush said of the chemical weapons ban. ``I have a certain fatherhood feeling about that, but leaving that out, I think it is vitally important for the United States to be out front, not to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line on that question.''

Bush publicly endorsed the treaty in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott last summer before a vote on it was abruptly canceled during last year's presidential campaign after Bob Dole expressed opposition.

But when asked if he would directly appeal to Helms, Bush replied, ``I'm out of the lobbyist business.''

Bush, appearing with Albright and his wife, Barbara, in the driveway outside his new home, also ridiculed what he called the ``stupid feeling in some quarters'' that the United States did not need to maintain financing for diplomacy abroad.

Bush, who served as the U.S. delegate to the United Nations from 1971 to 1973, also said it was of ``fundamental importance'' that the United States repay the more than $1 billion in dues it has refused to pay for three years.

Albright will go to Congress this coming week to begin her lobbying for the president's budget for the next fiscal year. The budget, submitted to Congress last week, included an increase in spending on foreign affairs to nearly $19.5 billion, from $18.2 billion this year.

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Photo: Former President George Bush stands with breakfast guest Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at his Houston home.

Associated Press