Bush makes first visit to Vietnam

Hanoi: US President George W Bush became the second US president to visit post-war Vietnam on Friday, looking to advance mutual trade and security ties and avoid dwelling on a war that still strains the American psyche 30 years later.

Thousands of Vietnamese, some smiling, some impassive, some astride motorbikes and bicycles, lined the streets of his motorcade route as President Bush arrived in Hanoi to attend the 21-nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

He quickly got down to business, discussing Asian security challenges including North Korea's nuclear program over lunch with a close ally, Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

While in Hanoi President Bush will meet the leaders of the other countries trying to persuade North Korea to forswear nuclear weapons, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea.

Asked if South Korea was doing its part to prevent North Korea from exporting nuclear-related technology, White House Spokesman Tony Snow said: ''Let me put it this way, we do expect parties to abide by the provisions of UN Security Council resolution 1718.''

The resolution, approved after North Korea's October nuclear test, imposed sanctions on North Korea to prevent it from exporting nuclear materials or technologies.

Later, President Bush was to meet leaders of Vietnam's communist state, the type of government US forces had tried to prevent in a bloody war that cost 56,000 American lives and ended in a humiliating defeat 30 years ago when communist forces overran the US-backed government in Saigon.

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Looking forward:

Snow batted away questions on whether the Vietnam war provided lessons for the unpopular Iraq war and whether Bush was focusing at all on the Vietnam conflict that divided Americans. Snow said President Bush was interested in Vietnam's future as a vibrant Asian economy, not its past.

''What's interesting is the Vietnamese are not particularly interested in that,'' Snow said on the Air Force One flight to Hanoi from Singapore.

''You have got a young population and a dynamic economy. This is not going to be a look-back at Vietnam. It really is going to be a looking forward to areas of cooperation and shared concerns in terms of working with the Vietnamese.''

President Bush, who spent the war as a pilot for the Texas Air National Guard, will see his biggest reminder of the conflict tomorrow when he visits the joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, in which US and Vietnamese experts are still trying to identify remains of American war dead.

President Bush, who lost some of his clout in Washington when Democrats ousted his Republicans from control of the US Congress on November 7, came without a deal aimed at normalising trade between the United States and Vietnam.

President Bush had hoped to have a symbol of American friendship in hand on arrival, legislation granting Vietnam permanent normalised trade relations to allow its accession to the World Trade Organisation.

But Bush's Republicans, ousted from control of the US Congress by Democrats in November 7 elections, failed to overcome differences on the legislation and the House of Representatives was unable to pass it last Monday, leaving Bush's empty-handed for now.