Norway asks Vietnam to allow visit to dissident monk

HANOI, Feb 14 (Reuters) Norway has asked Vietnam to reconsider a decision to bar a human rights group from visiting an activist Buddhist monk under house arrest, the Norwegian embassy in Hanoi said today.

The Bergen-based Rafto Foundation uesterdau said that Vietnam denied a visa to chairman Arne Lynngaard, who wanted to deliver the group's 2006 prize to the monk, Venerable Thich Quang Do of the outlawed United Buddhist Church of Vietnam.

The foundation said it received a letter from the Vietnamese embassy saying the visit would not be possible and accusing it of harming relations between Norway and Vietnam.

''A diplomatic note has been sent to ask the Vietnamese authorities to reconsider the decision,'' the embassy in Hanoi said in a statement.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to the Rafto Foundation statement, but had previously called the award ''completely inappropriate''.

Rafto last year honoured Quang Do with the prize ''for his personal courage and perseverance through three decades of peaceful opposition against the communist regime in Vietnam.'' Quang Do's supporters said he had opted not to travel to Norway to receive the prize because of fears the Hanoi government would force him into exile. Quang Do is under house arrest in Ho Chi Minh City.

Communist-run Vietnam recognises several faiths and religious organisations, but all are supervised by the state. The United Buddhist Church refuses to adhere to state supervision.

The Norwegian group has four times anticipated the choice of the Nobel Peace Prize winner with its own human rights award.

Quang Do has been nominated several times for the Nobel and was among the nominees this year, the foundation said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by John Acher in Norway) REUTERS KD ND1514