Vietnam PM begins historic visit to US

SEATTLE - Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said today he would seek to strengthen economic ties with the United States on a groundbreaking trip 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War.

Khai's stop in Seattle is the first of a four-city tour that culminates on Tuesday with a meeting with President George W Bush in Washington, where Khai is expected to push to accelerate negotiations for Vietnam's membership to the World Trade Organisation by the end of the year.

Khai, the first Vietnamese leader to visit the United States since the end of the war, did not outline specific details of what he would seek but said one goal was to bolster ties with the United States.

"This is the message I would like to convey to the people and the government of the United States during my visit," Khai said through a translator at a news conference. "I am willing to exchange views where the two sides still have differences." The trip coincides with the 10th anniversary of the normalisation of diplomatic ties frozen after the end of "The American War," as it is known to Vietnamese.

A few hundred people - many of them of Vietnamese heritage - gathered outside the hotel to protest the country's human rights record. Asked what he would tell the protesters, Khai said he would advise them to go to Vietnam and take note of the advances that have been made.

"Thirty years have passed since the end of the war," he said. "Therefore, I think all Vietnamese people have the same roots." Khai, a Soviet-educated economist, was to meet executives from companies like Boeing and Microsoft in the Seattle area. Vietnam is expected to sign a contract to buy four Boeing 787 "Dreamliner" planes, worth around US$500 million ($706 million), during Khai's visit.

Since restoring diplomatic links with the United States, two-way trade has rocketed from US$451 million in 1995 to US$6.4 billion in 2004. Following a bilateral trade pact in 2001, the United States has emerged as Vietnam's most crucial commercial partner.

Vietnam's Trade Ministry says it expects US$6.2 billion of exports to the United States in 2005, most of it clothing, fish, shrimp, furniture and coffee.

In addition to meeting Bush, Khai is scheduled to discuss military ties with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Khai's trip also will take him to Boston and New York.

Despite growing commercial ties, differences remain between the two nations, in particular over US criticism of Vietnam's record on human rights and religious freedom, and Washington's refusal to compensate the thousands of Vietnamese victims of wartime chemical weapons such as Agent Orange.

During Khai's question-and-answer session with the media hotel employees escorted out a reporter who repeatedly called Khai a liar while outside hundreds of protesters waved South Vietnamese flags and carried signs calling for freedom for Vietnam.

"We want to let him know that he is not welcome here until there is human rights, democracy and freedom in Vietnam," said Nido Nguyen, who helped organize the protests.

- REUTERS