Bush prods Vietnam's president on human rights

By Caren Bohan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, hosting Vietnam's president in a historic visit on Friday, welcomed warmer relations with a former U.S. enemy but warned that Hanoi must improve its human rights record if it wants to deepen trade ties.

Chanting "Freedom for Vietnam, now, now, now," hundreds of democracy activists gathered across the street from the White House to protest Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet's communist-ruled, one-party government.

Many wore T-shirts that said "Stop kangaroo court in Vietnam and showed guards muffling the mouth of Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest and democracy activist, who was sentenced to eight years imprisonment in March.

Triet's trip is the first by Vietnamese head of state since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. His meeting with Bush in the Oval Office was another step by both countries to move beyond the painful history of the war.

The Vietnamese president is especially keen to bolster a burgeoning trade relationship with the United States, Vietnam's biggest export market.

Bush praised Vietnam's transformation into fast-growing economy. But both he and Triet acknowledged differences over human rights in Vietnam.

"I explained to the president we want to have good relations with Vietnam and we've got good economic relations," Bush told reporters after the meeting.

"I also made it very clear that in order for relations to grow deeper that it's important for our friends to have a strong commitment to human rights, freedom and democracy."