English Transcript

Cập nhật 25/07/2008 15:19:00

Vietnam has signalled it wants to continue with a joint oil exploration project with ExxonMobil in disputed waters.

This is despite a warning from China to the US energy giant to drop the deal.

Vietnam -- without mentioning the specific contract -- reasserted its claim over parts of the South China Sea that are the subject of a dispute with China.

Foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung says all Vietnamese cooperation with foreign partners in the field of petroleum is in Vietnamese territorial water and in its economic zone.

Hong Kong's Sunday Morning Post newspaper, citing sources close to ExxonMobil, reported this week that China had warned it to drop the deal and said the project could threaten future mainland contracts.

Vietnam is to host official visits from the foreign ministers of Japan and North Korea tomorrow (Friday)

A foreign ministry spokesman in Hanoi says Japan's Masahiko Komura and his North Korean counterpart Pak Ui-chun will be holding talks on a range of bilateral and international issues.

North Korea has signed on to a 'non-aggression' pact with South-East Asian nations after regional security talks at the ASEAN forum in Singapore.

The Australian and New Zealand Government's have both announced they'll appoint ambassadors to ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations