ALBRIGHT RATTLES SABER IN ALBANIA AIRLIFT TALKS.

Byline: Steven Lee Myers The New York Times

In the harried hours after gunmen fired at Marine Corps helicopters evacuating Americans from Albania last week, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright suggested sending a larger, stronger force from NATO to occupy Albania's main airport and the port at Durres, administration officials said last week.

After only brief consideration, the idea was rejected when military officials, led by Defense Secretary William Cohen, argued that such a force was not necessary for the evacuation and far too risky a way to stabilize Albania's capital, Tirana, which was lurching toward anarchy.

Within days the discussion became largely academic because Albania calmed down; the evacuation resumed after only a brief suspension.

But Albright's idea - by far the most assertive action discussed by Clinton's foreign policy advisers - offered an early example of her thinking as the United States faced the first mini-crisis of her tenure.

In her four years as the United States' representative to the United Nations, Albright became an advocate for a more muscular approach to foreign policy, particularly in the case of Bosnia.

In a retort to Gen. Colin Powell, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, she once exclaimed, as he recalled it, ``What's the point of having this superb military you're always talking about it if we can't use it.''

A senior administration official said on Thursday that Albright raised a larger force as an idea for consideration, that she never insisted on it and that she ultimately agreed with military commanders that the evacuations by helicopter were the best and safest action.

Nonetheless, the discussion showed Albright's desire ``not to be instinctively unwilling to discuss the possibility of using force,'' according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. At the same time, it indicated that any more aggressive use of the military is likely to encounter resistance from the more cautious quarters of the Pentagon, as was the case throughout President Clinton's first term.

Albright did not suggest that the administration embrace appeals being made by some in Europe to send an international force to stabilize Albania.

The United States and NATO have repeatedly rejected such calls. Although it has not ruled out such a force in the future, the administration has made it clear it would do nothing to shore up the teetering government of President Sali Berisha, whose autocratic rule has disillusioned Washington.

Instead, Albright suggested the administration not rule out a military operation to secure the airport in Tirana and the port in Durres, the country's biggest, which has been the scene of chaos since riots swept Albania this month.

At the time of the discussion, the senior administration official said, it appeared either the airport or the port might be needed to evacuate more foreigners and to secure a safe passage for diplomats trying to find a political solution, like a mission led by Franz Vranitzky, the former chancellor of Austria, under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The administration official said a NATO operation like the one Albright suggested could have symbolic importance, in that it would demonstrate the alliance's agility as it recruits new members from the former Communist nations of eastern Europe while trying to ease Russian fears that such an expansion threatens stability.

Another official at the discussion last week said on Thursday that Albright's idea did not go into details of the size or scope of an operation. But the official said she had suggested that ``a more robust'' intervention might offer the United States and its allies an opportunity to do more than simply evacuate their citizens. The idea was ``to use this to help support the evacuation and to advance the diplomatic effort.''

``It would be wrong to portray this as a huge battle,'' this official said. ``This was a very short-lived notion. The situation was not right for it.''

And so the idea faded quickly. The military officials, including Cohen, questioned the objective of a larger force beyond the evacuation. ``Our goal was always very limited,'' a Pentagon official said.

Although declining to discuss the conversations, the Pentagon's spokesman, Kenneth Bacon, said a variety of operations were considered for the evacuation, including seizing the airport. ``We did look at a wide range of things,'' he said. ``The preferred option was helicopters.''

The helicopters, flying from ships in the Adriatic Sea, began airlifting Americans and others last Friday, using a soccer field not far from the American Embassy. After a day's suspension, the helicopters resumed the evacuation after adjusting routes and landing sites to avoid confrontations with gunmen, who did not appear to pose an organized threat.