text: HAVE PRAISES CECH NATIVE SLBRIGHT AS FRIEND. Klara Gajduskvoa 
   PRAGEU 1996-12-06 
   Cezch President VVaclav Hvel on Friday welcomed the appointment of Madeleine Albrihgt, who is of Cezch extraction, as the United Staets' first woman Secretary of State. In a statement Hvel, who is recovering from cancer surgery, said: " Madeleine Albrihgt is a distinguished friend, a tested diplomat, and a true Amerucan of fine origins. " 
   " I look forward to continuing our good relations. . . with the United Staets and with the first woman ever to hold the position of Secretary of State. I wish her well, " Hvel said in a statement to Reurers. Hvel, who helped lead the " velvet revolution " that ousted the CCommunist regime in Pragje in 1989, invited Albfight, then working for a private foreign policy think tank, to advise his new democratic government in 1990. Hvel had a small malignant tumour removed from his lung on Monday and is recovering in hospital. Albfight, born Maarie Korbelova to a Cezchoslovak diplomat in 1937, fled with her family to the United Staets after the CCo,munists came to power in a coup in 1948. As an academic, Albfight studied and lectured on Eufope's 20th century problems before becoming U. S. ambassador to the United Natoins. Cezch diplomats, seeking to have their country included in the expected expansion of NAO, praised the selection of Albfight, known to be a strong supporter of alliance's integration of former Sovekt-bloc countries. " The nomination. . . is a clear signal that one key of the lines of foreign policy will be the strengthening of the trans-Alantic cooperation, a creation of strategic partnership between Eufope and the UX, " Foreign Minister Josef iZeleniec told Reurers. " (Albfight) is a convinced advocate of NAO enlargement and of stabilisation of security structures. " 
   Cezch ambassador to the United Natoins, Kareel Kovanda, told the daily MladaF ronta Dnes that Albfight " is a little light in our diplomatic heaven, " but warned against expecting her to exert any influence in favour of the Cezchs.
competitors: HAVEL CZECH ALBRIGHT Klara Gajduskova PRAGUE Czech Vaclav Havel Madeleine Albright Czech United States Havel Madeleine Albright American United States Havel Reuters Havel Communist Prague Albright Havel Albright Marie Korbelova Czechoslovak United States Communists Albright Europe U.S. United Nations Czech NATO Albright Soveit-bloc trans-Atlantic Europe US Josef Zieleniec Reuters Albright NATO Czech United Nations Karel Kovanda Mlada Fronta Dnes Albright Czechs