The conservative general, who will arrive in Washington later Sunday, is scheduled to meet with his counterpart Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for talks on kick-starting military relations between the former foes.

Last week Tra told state media he will also meet with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung told reporters on Thursday that his visit "will contribute to enhancing mutual understanding between the two armies and peoples and developing US-Vietnam relations".

Topics up for discussion include the ongoing searches for US and Vietnamese soldiers missing-in-action (MIAs), the consequences of the defoliant Agent Orange sprayed by US forces during conflict and demining operations, he added.

Tra's four-day Washington foray, comes ahead of a port call by a US Navy warship in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon, scheduled for mid-November.

It will be the first such stopover since the United States' humiliating exit from Saigon and the end of Vietnam War on April 30, 1975, during which 58,000 Americans and around three million Vietnamese were killed.

Analysts say Tra's visit symbolises a formal and pragmatic turning of the page on past hostilities by Hanoi, a step tentatively initiated in 1995 and accelerated five years later with the July 2000 US-Vietnam trade agreement.

"Tra's visit to the United States is highly significant," said Carl Thayer, an expert on US-Vietnam relations at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

"It signals the bilateral relationship is fully rounded and that all aspects of it can now be addressed -- political, economic, social and military."

The Vietnamese general's visit reciprocates a landmark three-day trip to Vietnam in March 2000 by former US defence secretary William Cohen.

Cohen, however, failed to secure any significant gains in accelerating military ties, mainly because Vietnam feared antagonizing regional powerbroker China, its ideological soulmate but historical rival, analysts say.

"The fact that it has taken him over two years to accept the invitation shows how many different hurdles there are in realizing this trip," said Nayan Chanda, an Indochina expert at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization.

ADFA's Thayer believes that the change of heart is partly as a result of Washington's growing influence in Asia following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. This, he says, has left Hanoi, with its policy of non-engagement, in danger of being isolated.

"With the exception of Myanmar and Laos, virtually all other regional countries, China included, are cooperating with the US in the war on terrorism," he said.

By beginning informal defence cooperation, Vietnam is also "insuring itself against uncertainties in its relationship with China, but only to the extent of not raising alarm with China," added David Koh from the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.

But despite this addition of the missing military ingredient to the US-Vietnam relationship, the frequent trans-Pacific barbs are unlikely to cease, analysts say.

Much to Hanoi's chagrin, the United States frequently criticises Vietnam's human rights record, while Hanoi remains suspicious of what it considers Washington's imperialist global foreign policy.

Tra leaves Washington on Wednesday and then flies south to Brazil for three days of defence talks. He wraps up his overseas swing with further talks in Belgium from November 16-19.

WAR.WIRE