Sharp differences still remain as Albright concludes talks in Moscow

IT was all sweetness and light on the surface after the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, had completed her series of Moscow meetings. Russia and NATO were no longer enemies, a lot of progress had been made, everyone was ready to work hard to solve some very complex issues and President Yeltsin appeared to be in very good shape mentally, she told her first Moscow press conference.

But just under the surface, one could catch a glimpse of the old Russia. Foreign moves to the borderlands have always been looked on with the utmost suspicion, almost always rightly so. Opposition to NATO is deep-seated after decades of Cold War and the only certain truth to emerge was the one about the hard work that will be needed before Mr Yeltsin and President Clinton meet in Helsinki next month.

As far as Mr Yeltsin's health is concerned Ms Albright who had doffed the cowboy hat she wore on arrival, concentrated on his mental state and said she was very impressed with his mastery of his brief. Asked about his physical state she refused, perhaps significantly, to comment.

The small number of US journalists admitted to the Kremlin for the meeting showed no similar reluctance. The descriptions included "gaunt", "waxen-faced", very heavily made up and apparently very ill".

There is still a possibility, therefore, that the Helsinki summit may be put back for some time, although the Kremlin is saying that Mr Yeltsin will be back to his full health in about two weeks after his heart operation.

The main differences between Russia and the United States on NATO expansion concern the type of treaty which will be drawn up to delineate relations between Russia and NATO.

Russia wants a full-dress document, legally binding on both sides, but the US would prefer a much looser agreement which would not be binding. Ms Albright appeared to have moved somewhat on this after her Moscow talks, saying that the nature of the document could be left open for the present.

Any such document should, she said, allow for the evolution of our work together and the emerging needs of European security in the coming, century

Ms Albright's opposite number Mr Yevgeny Primakov, a former head of the KGB, stressed joint efforts to avoid difficulties which NATO expansion would present but stressed that his country was still "negatively disposed" towards NATO and that it would be better if it did not draw closer to Russia's borders.

The Russian press went to some lengths to make the anti-NATO point yesterday morning with the government mouthpiece, Rossiskiye Vesti, quoting a former US ambassador to Moscow, Mr John Matlock, as saying expansion eastwards would be a "strategic mistake while the highly respected Izvestiya described Ms Albright's visit as a "last-ditch effort to persuade Russia's leaders to accept expansion".