New US-Vietnam group tackles toxic legacy of war

HANOI, June 20 (Reuters) Seven prominent Vietnamese and Americans will work together to support humanitarian efforts in cleaning up wartime dioxin, or ''agent orange'' in Vietnam, a US philanthropy said today.

New York-based Ford Foundation said the policy makers, scientists and business figures ''aim to build a collective, bipartisan humanitarian response where diplomatic discussion alone has proved difficult'' in resolving a bitter war legacy.

The announcement, the latest by Americans and Vietnamese on the sensitive issue, was made during the visit to the United States by President Nguyen Minh Triet. He is the first head of state of communist-ruled Vietnam to be welcomed by Washington since the war ended in 1975.

Toxins that Vietnam says have affected millions of people over three generations is a thorn in otherwise friendly ties built up over 12 years since diplomatic relations were established between Washington and Hanoi. The United States government maintains there is no scientific link between the toxins and the disabled.

''The time is right for our two countries to come together to address this legacy and to mainstream discussion of this unresolved issue,'' group member Christine Todd Whitman, a former US Environmental Protection Agency head, said in a statement.

The Ford Foundation said it was funding The US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin as it is formally known.

The compound of dioxin is a component of ''agent orange'' toxic herbicides sprayed during the 1960s and 1970s war but it is one of the most toxic known.

COMBINED EXPERTISE ''Dioxin has had a profound impact on Vietnamese society,'' said a Vietnamese group member, prominent diplomat Madame Ton Nu Thi Ninh, who is Vice Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly. ''We need to combine our expertise to reduce the harm and provide services.'' Triet told Reuters before leaving Hanoi that he would discuss the health and environmental impacts of dioxin with US President George W Bush when they meet on June 22.

A Foundation spokeswoman said that in February the group of seven visited the former US airbase of Danang in central Vietnam, one of three ''hot spots'' identified by scientists as having dioxin levels hundreds of times higher than would be accepted elsewhere. The others are Phu Cat in south-central Binh Dinh province and Bien Hoa in southern Dong Nai province.

Yesterday in New York, Triet met Ford Foundation president Susan Berresford, convener of the group.

Its tasks include supporting clean up at former US bases and health programmes in surrounding communities; treatment and education centres for victims; development of a Vietnamese laboratory for dioxin testing; training courses for restoration of land affected with herbicides and advocacy efforts.

REUTERS AGL PM1235