I don't think it can be done. This is one reason why I rarely use the autonumber field. I always use code to generate the next max number.
If for example you have
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,17
you could delete record with id 17, compact/repair the database, and the next new record will start at id 8. I think that's all that can be done. I may be wrong though.
Nick