HANOI - RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began a two-day visit to Vietnam on Saturday, with local officials hoping to boost ties that remain only a shadow of Cold War levels.

Mr Lavrov arrived on Friday and began a full day of meetings and ceremonies on Saturday by holding talks with his Vietnamese counterpart Mr Pham Gia Khiem.

Mr Lavrov was later to meet President Nguyen Minh Triet and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and visit the Vietnam Russia Bank, a joint venture.

The visit aims 'to accelerate the implementation... of cooperation' between the two countries especially in trade and economics, Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said ahead of Mr Lavrov's arrival.

Prime Minister Dung, who visited Russia almost two years ago, last week said Vietnam would do its utmost 'to further develop its strategic partnership' and expressed hope for a boost in trade.

After the Vietnam War ended in 1975 the communist Soviet Union became Vietnam's main benefactor during the 1980s until the country collapsed in 1991, leaving Vietnam without its ideological, economic and military ally.

Vietnam officially remains one of the world's last communist countries, but has embraced a market economy along with Asian and Western investment over the past two decades.

In more recent years Russian influence in Vietnam has begun to grow again but remains far below that of Soviet times.

Preliminary Vietnamese government data show that exports to Russia totalled almost UK$139 million (S$200 million) in the first five months of this year while imports were valued at about US$525 million. Vietnam's former wartime enemy, the United States, which normalised diplomatic ties in 1995, received Vietnamese exports worth more than US$4 billion in the first five months, the data showed. Imports exceeded US$932 million.

Mr Lavrov was to travel on Sunday to southern Ho Chi Minh City to meet local government officials there.

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