U.S. Presses China on Rights; Abortion Battle Averted : Conference: Albright meets with Beijing foreign minister. Vatican softens its stance at U.N. forum.

On the third day of the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women, the United States unleashed a fresh attack on human rights abuses in China, and the Vatican backed away from an expected battle over abortion.

Following up First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton’s outspoken attack on rights violations, Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and chair of the American delegation at the conference, raised human rights with China’s foreign minister, Qian Qichen.

“He took it on board,” Albright told reporters. She described the session as “a particularly good meeting.”

Later, in an address to delegates, Albright criticized China’s practices of forced abortion and sterilization.

She also repeated Mrs. Clinton’s condemnation of China’s heavy-handed policing and crackdown on free expression at a private women’s forum being held in Huairou, a suburb 35 miles north of Beijing.

In Washington, President Clinton told reporters Wednesday that his wife did not mean to single out China for criticism when she made her ringing call for human rights at the conference.

“There was no attempt to single any country out,” he said in an apparent bid to defuse any negative Chinese reaction at a time when he is trying to mend frayed bilateral ties.

White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton had helped polish his wife’s speech.

Also on Wednesday, the Vatican surprised many delegates to the Beijing conference by announcing that it does not plan to reopen the battle over reproductive issues that it waged at last September’s U.N. population conference in Cairo.

Negotiator Janne Halland Matlary said the Vatican wants “to protect what was achieved in Cairo.”

In Cairo, the Vatican dominated the headlines and agenda with its fight to keep references to abortion, contraception and sex education out of the final document. The Vatican ended up supporting only about 70% of the document, which supports women’s rights to decide when and whether to have children and to have access to family planning information and contraception.

Organizers of the Beijing conference had feared that another prolonged debate over abortion would take the spotlight off women’s issues such as poverty, educational imbalances and discrimination.

Abortion rights groups and others who came here prepared for a fight were wary of the Vatican about-face.

“They want to be perceived as champions of women,” said Frances Kissling, president of the U.S. advocacy group Catholics for a Free Choice. “That’s going to be a hard sell, and the conference isn’t over.”

Controversy continued Wednesday over the handling of security at the private forum in Huairou where Mrs. Clinton spoke.

Members of the First Lady’s party, including U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, and Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord, were left waiting outside in a chilly rain for half an hour.

Shalala and Lord, riding to Huairou on a press bus in Mrs. Clinton’s motorcade, were deposited at the outside edge of the crowd waiting to get into a theater to hear her speech. The two officials had to push their way forward. When they reached the front, Chinese security forces shoved them away.

After repeated attempts, Shalala and Lord were finally admitted through a side door.