HANOI, Sept 15 (AFP) - US criticism of the human rights and religious freedom situation in Vietnam cast a shadow over relations between the two countries ahead of US President Bill Clinton's historic visit in November.
"Bill Clinton will not pass up the opportunity to raise the questions of human rights and violations of religious freedom during his talks in Hanoi," a Western diplomat here told AFP on Friday.
Following the signature in July of an agreement paving the way for normal trade relations, "these two subjects remain the last points of friction between the former enemies," the diplomat said.
The question of US servicemen missing in action (MIA) since the Vietnam War remains an emotional issue for Washington in its relations with Hanoi but the two have been cooperating closely on the subject for years.
US-Vietnamese joint teams conduct regular searches for the remains of US servicemen and the list of 1,514 US MIAs -- 545 in South Vietnam, 969 in the north -- diminishes regularly.
"On the other hand, they continue to disagree over the human rights situation with the United States insisting that Vietnam holds a number of political prisoners," said another diplomat.
"Vietnam also figures on the list published by the US State Department this year of countries which restrict belief or religious freedom in a totalitarian or authoritarian manner," noted another diplomat.
Vietnam rejects the US allegations on the human rights and religious freedom fronts as "interference in its internal affairs contrary to the fundamental principles of international law."
While of concern to Washington, the sensitive subjects are not expected to be the focus of the Clinton visit, which the White House described as having largely "symbolic value" and a bid "to help promote relations."
Clinton's trip to Vietnam is set to take place 10 days after the November 7 presidential election and will be the first by a US president to the country since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
Vietnam on Friday hailed the Clinton visit and said it comes at the right time in bilateral ties between the former foes.
"Vietnam welcomes the official visit of the American president which comes at the appropriate moment for the two countries," foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung told AFP.
"In the past years, relations between Vietnam and the United States have made significant developments, in particular with the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1995 and the signing of a bilateral trade accord last July," Dung said.
"In the process, American President Bill Clinton has made a major contribution to speeding up relations between the two countries," he added.
Clinton will tag the Vietnam visit onto an already announced trip to Southeast Asia for a November 15-16 summit of Asia Pacific leaders in Brunei.
The last US troops pulled out of Vietnam in April 1975 at the end of a bitter conflict which left 58,000 US servicemen dead and killed some three million Vietnamese according to official Vietnamese figures.