WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said there was no truth in the view that Washington, keen to avoid jeopardizing arms control talks, was taking a soft line on Russia over Chechnya.

"There seems to be a view that the Clinton administration has actually 'endorsed' acting President Vladimir Putin and that we have hesitated to criticize Russia for what it is doing in Chechnya. The truth, however, is very different," Albright wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post.

"No matter what agreements we seek on other issues, we have to bring Russia to see that this war ... must be resolved by political, not military means," she wrote.

Albright acknowledged that President Bill Clinton and other U.S. officials had described Putin, favored to win Russia's March 26 presidential election, as capable, energetic and knowledgeable, but she said this did not amount to an endorsement.

She said Putin's biography contained contradictions between his association with economic reformers and his long years of service in Russia's spy agency, the KGB, as well as his oversight of "the massively destructive Chechen military campaign."

"There's little to be gained by trying to make a final judgment at this point ... because we're going to have to deal with what Mr. Putin does, not with what he thinks," Albright wrote.