2007-06-17 08:03:02 -

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) - President Nguyen Minh Triet will make a state visit to the United States on Monday, the first by a Vietnamese head of state since the end of the Vietnam War and a symbol of the increasingly close ties between the former foes.
The trip comes as concerns about Vietnam's human rights

record are growing in Washington, but Triet will try to shift attention from the Communist Party's tight political grip to Hanoi's growing embrace of market economics.
Triet will arrive in New York on Monday, traveling with a delegation of over 100 Vietnamese businessmen. He plans to visit the New York Stock Exchange and witness the signing of various business deals.
In addition to agreements in the energy and technology sectors, Vietnam is negotiating to buy jets from Boeing Co., but it was not clear whether that deal would be completed during Triet's trip.
The U.S. and Vietnam are also expected to sign a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which could eventually pave the way for a free-trade agreement and provide a forum for resolving bilateral trade disputes.
Triet travels to Washington on Wednesday, where he will meet with congressional leaders before meeting President George W. Bush at the White House on Friday.
Since the two nations implemented a bilateral trade agreement in 2001, trade has been booming, reaching nearly US$10 billion (¤7.5 billion) last year. Vietnam's entry into the World Trade Organization in January is expected to lead to further U.S. investment.
The commercial and strategic relationship is important to both sides, especially given neighboring China's growing influence in the region.
«It's a very important economic relationship, especially for Vietnam, which is a small country exporting into a big market,» said Jonathan Pincus, senior economist at the United Nations Development Program in Hanoi. «It's also a very important political relationship. The U.S. is always very anxious to develop diplomatic and economic relationships in Southeast Asia.
Vietnam has been working to cultivate its relationship with both Washington and Beijing. One month before his U.S. visit, Triet traveled to China.
Vietnam released two political dissidents in the last two weeks to ease concerns about what Washington has described as a crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Vietnam, which does not tolerate challenges to the Communist Party's political control.
Hanoi has arrested or sentenced at least eight pro-democracy activists in recent months, including two Hanoi human rights lawyers and a dissident Catholic priest who was sentenced to 8 years in prison.
In an interview with the Vietnamese media before his trip, Triet said human rights concerns should not overshadow the growing cooperation between Washington and Hanoi. But they are bound to come up in Washington and in Los Angeles, where Triet will meet with members of Southern California's large Vietnamese-American community before returning to Hanoi on June 23.
Many members of California's Vietnamese emigre population are staunchly anti-communist.
«Vietnam is desperate to make sure that human rights issues don't take center stage, but there will be protests,» said Carl Thayer, a Vietnam expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

Another sensitive topic on Triet's agenda is Agent Orange, the poisonous herbicide that U.S. troops sprayed across Vietnam during the war, which ended in 1975.
A recent study by a Canadian consulting firm showed extraordinarily high levels of dioxin, the toxic compound in Agent Orange, at a former U.S. airbase in Danang.
During Bush's visit to Hanoi last fall, the two presidents agreed to work together to address environmental and health issues near old Agent Orange storage sites in Vietnam such as the one in Danang.
Triet's arrival in the U.S. coincides with a hearing at a federal appeals court in New York on Monday, where the Vietnam Agent Orange Victims Association will seek permission to sue the American companies that manufactured the herbicide.
Vietnam says 3 million of its citizens have suffered health problems due to Agent Orange. The United States says the actual number is lower and that further scientific research is necessary to document the links between Agent Orange and health.
As their relations have grown closer, Vietnam and the United States have exchanged many high-leveled visits in recent years. Although Triet is the first head of state to visit since the end of the war, former Prime Minister Phan Van Khai made a trip to Washington in 2005.