``I don't know what I am going to do next, except that I am going to help Christiane take care of our baby in London.'' JAMES RUBIN

WHERE THERE'S WAR

THERE'S AMANPOUR

Christianne's baby is due in March. Thank God Jamie is going to be there to take care of it. Christianne is going to have to get in shape and start packing if she wants to make the next war.

******************

State Dept. Spokesman Leaving Post

By BARRY SCHWEID AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- James P. Rubin, chief spokesman for and trusted adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, will leave in April, move to London and help his wife, CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, take care of their first child.

After seven years as Albright's spokesman, first at the United Nations, where she was U.S. ambassador, and then at the State Department, Rubin said Monday he needs time to decompress before deciding what to do next.

``At this stage in life, I am doing three stressful things -- going to a new country where I only partly speak the language, leaving my career and having a baby,'' Rubin told a reporter.

The baby is due in March.

Albright suggested impending fatherhood was Rubin's main motivation in leaving the limelight.

``I've just become a grandmother, and I can tell you it's a lot easier to be a grandmother than to become a father,'' she said. ``He has to get ready for those duties.''

Albright added: ``Obviously, Mr. Rubin has been very important in everything that we've done.''

She said she would ``mourn'' his departure.

In a statement, Albright said career foreign service officer Richard Boucher would succeed Rubin.

Sometimes spokesman for James A. Baker III, Lawrence Eagleburger and Warren Christopher when they were secretaries of state, Boucher has served as U.S. ambassador to Cyprus and consul general in Hong Kong. Currently, he is coordinator for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum.

Operating with authority uncommon for a spokesman, Rubin provided advice to Albright on a range of foreign policy issues, particularly arms control and the Balkans. He and Albright played leading roles in influencing Clinton to intercede in Kosovo to stop atrocities.

Their hawkish stances, shared by Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., for whom Rubin had worked, led to NATO's bombardment of Yugoslavia to end Serb-led incarceration and murder of ethnic Albanians in that Serbian province.

At the same time, Rubin lately has championed a U.S. space-based weapons program, which many arms-control analysts with whom he worked almost two decades ago fear could touch off a buildup in offensive nuclear arms to try to overcome the anti-missile defense.

Clinton is due to make a decision by summer on a limited, ground-based missile defense.

Rubin also is an ardent champion of the administration's policy of prodding Israel to relinquish land to the Arabs in exchange for pledges of peace.

Rubin, 39, said he had ``a great run in government'' and that it would be very hard to find another job like it.

In fact, he said, ``I don't know what I am going to do next, except that I am going to help Christiane take care of our baby in London.''

AP-NY-02-08-00 0226EST