Vietnamese National Defense Minister Pham Van Tra held talks with his visiting US counterpart Donald Rumsfeld in Hanoi on Monday, discussing measures to boost the bilateral cooperation and other issues of mutual concern.

Tra said he welcomes Donald Rumsfeld's visit. He, together with the US defense secretary, during his trip to the United States in 2003, touched upon issues on beefing up their ties, and this time they are to continue discussing measures on strengthening their win-win relations, Tra said.

Donald Rumsfeld, who started his three-day visit to Vietnam on Sunday, said the visit is his first trip to the country as a US defense secretary. He, who expressed his happiness to visit Vietnam, also highly appreciated the country's dynamic socioeconomic development.

Before arriving in Hanoi, Donald Rumsfeld said one more US navy ship will visit the country this summer, and that Vietnam will send local pilots to the United States for English language training.

The US defense secretary also said that the United States wants to enhance its military relations with Vietnam, but has no plans to rent Vietnam's military facilities.

Talking about the bilateral relations, he said the two countries' military ties are under progress. Vietnam is an important country in the region and the United States highly appreciates the relations with it, he noted.

Vietnam is the second leg of Donald Rumsfeld's several-Asian-nation tour which also includes Singapore and Indonesia.

Since the normalization of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the United States in 1995, cooperation between the two countries has been improved rapidly, especially in the fields of politics, economy, healthcare, education, science and technology, as well as in the fields of drug trafficking and transnational crimes.

(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2006)