Vietnam works on changing NKorea, Iran nuclear plans

HANOI, Dec 11 (Reuters) Vietnam, which emerged from war and isolation to step onto the global stage in recent years, is encouraging friends North Korea and Iran to change their nuclear programmes and avoid sanctions, a senior official said today.

Deputy Foreign Minister Le Van Bang said he told visiting United Nations nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei that Vietnam was ''a big supporter'' of non-proliferation efforts and peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

''We are working with our friends the DPRK (North Korea) and Iran and other countries we have very good relations with to show them how we have integrated ourselves into the international arena, not to have embargoes, or to be isolated,'' Bang said.

North Korea tested a nuclear device on October 9, stirring global condemnation that brought even its longtime supporter, China, behind UN Security Council sanctions.

Iran is suspected by the United States and other Western countries of seeking to obtain nuclear weapons and might also face sanctions.

Twelve years after its former war enemy the United States lifted a trade embargo, Communist-run Vietnam has been approved to become a World Trade Organisation member as its economy grows at about eight percent a year, one of the fastest-expanding in the world.

It is Asia's only candidate to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2008.

Vietnam, which signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 1982, plans to start building a nuclear power plant in 2015 to help drive the energy-hungry economy.

The Vietnam Atomic Energy Commission says the country will need 2,000 to 4,000 megawatts of nuclear power from 2017, but does not want to enrich uranium on its soil.

International Atomic Energy Agency director ElBaradei said Hanoi had involved the agency from the beginning of its nuclear power development.

REUTERS BDP BD1818