Hanoi- Vietnam's statement of opposition to a weekend commando raid by the United States inside Syrian territory prompted mixed reactions Thursday from Hanoi experts.

Government spokesman Le Dung said Wednesday that Vietnam "opposes (the US's) unilateral military action and considers that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries should be absolutely respected."

Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam expert at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said Thursday that he was surprised Hanoi had made a statement on its own, rather than waiting for the issue to arise in a multilateral body, such as the United Nations.

Vietnam has increasingly close relations with the United States, and when it opposes American interests, it tends to do so in concert with China and other non-aligned countries.

"That will rankle with the US," Thayer said.

But experts agreed the statement was consistent with Vietnam's long-standing opposition to intervention by Western powers in other countries' internal affairs.

Martin Gainsborough, a Vietnam expert at Britain's Bristol University, said Vietnam dislikes US "sovereignty infringements" anywhere in the world, despite warming diplomatic relations.

"US-Vietnam relations are looked at in the round by Washington - as any bilateral relationship is - and Vietnam knows it," Gainsborough wrote in an e-mail. He said Vietnam could "criticise the US in one area while the overall trajectory of the relationship is good."

Bui Truong Giang of Vietnam's Centre for International Security and Strategic Studies said Hanoi regarded the raid on Syria as a continuation of interventionist policies by US President George W Bush's administration in Iraq, which it continues to oppose.

"The US attack on Syria is rather like the US attack on Cambodian and Laotian territory during the Vietnam War," Giang said.

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and '70s, US air and ground forces carried out attacks in Cambodia and Laos to try to deny sanctuary to Vietnamese Communist forces, which used the neighbouring countries as bases and supply routes for operations in South Vietnam.

US officials, speaking anonymously in media reports, said the US raid on Sunday targeted insurgents using Syrian territory as a base for attacks on American forces in Iraq, but the Syrian government said US helicopters targeted a civilian home and killed eight people.

Thayer noted the Vietnamese statement came at a time when Vietnam's prime minister had just visited China and while its president is on a state visit to Russia. It also followed recent crackdowns on outspoken journalists and on protests by Catholics in Hanoi.

The statement of opposition "may well be part of a hardening-up in Vietnam," Thayer said. (dpa)