Hanoi muted on US 'war crimes'

The US said there was no reason to reopen the case

Vietnam has played down new reports of a massacre by US soldiers in the Vietnam War by saying it wants to put the conflict behind it.

A Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Le Dung, was responding to reports in the Toledo Blade newspaper that an elite unit of US soldiers killed hundreds of unarmed villagers in Vietnam's Central Highlands over seven months in 1967.

Le Dung said Vietnam did not want to dwell on the past, and better bilateral relations were the best way to solve its consequences.

The statement came as Hanoi announced the first visit by a Vietnamese Defence Minister to the United States.

We advocate strengthening mutual understanding... that is the basis to solve the consequences left by the past. Le Dung Vietnamese Foreign Ministry

Pham Van Tra is due to travel in November.

The Toledo Blade newspaper reported that soldiers from the Tiger Force unit of the US Army's 101st Airborne Division had admitted to a series of atrocities, including wearing severed ears as trophies and dropping grenades into bunkers where children and women were taking refuge.

The Toledo Blade said that the US army conducted a four year investigation into the allegations, but it was closed in 1975 and never made public.

The US Defence Department said the case was more than 30 years old and there was no new or compelling evidence to justify reopening it.

Pham Van Tra said his US trip would help enhance military links between the two countries and allow issues to be discussed like the effects of Agent Orange, the defoliant used by the US military to destroy the jungle in which Vietnamese forces operated.

Military links have lagged behind growing cooperation between the two countries in other areas.

They restored diplomatic ties in 1995 and signed a trade agreement which took effect in December 2001.