Hanoi  - North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui Chun is to visit Vietnam Saturday on his way home from a south-east Asian security forum in Singapore, Vietnam's government announced Thursday.

Vietnamese government spokesman Le Dung said Pak was to meet with Vietnamese Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem Saturday to discuss "the implementation of agreements reached at high-ranking levels to promote traditional relations between the two countries."

Hanoi  - Vietnam's government said Wednesday it would take steps to cushion the impact of a drastic fuel price hike on the country's poor, but released few details of what the steps might include.

On Monday, the government raised the retail price of gasoline 31 per cent, to 19,000 dong (1.13 dollars) per liter. The price rises are painful for poor people dependent on gasoline use, such as taxi drivers and fishermen.

Vietnamese press reported Wednesday that fishermen hurt by higher fuel prices would soon receive additional fuel subsidies from the government. But Deputy Agriculture Minister Nguyen Viet Thang told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa no decision had been made yet.

Hanoi  - Vietnam raised retail gasoline prices by 31 per cent Monday to reduce state fuel subsidies and bring local prices in line with international levels, local media said.

The Ministry of Finance announced the decision at a press conference Monday morning. Fuel trading companies will be allowed to raise the price of A92-grade gasoline from 14,500 dong (0.86 dollars) to 19,000 dong (1.13 dollars) per liter, reported the news website dantri. com. vn.

Hanoi - Flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains have killed at least four people in northern Vietnam during the past week, officials said Thursday.

Hanoi - The funeral of a banned monk in Vietnam was held without any government interferences on Friday, according to a spokesman for the church.

Hanoi  - Three Vietnamese children were killed when a shrapnel bomb, believed to be left over from the Vietnam War, exploded in central Vietnam, an official said Thursday.

Tran Duy Quyet, 14, Pham Nhu Hoi, 13, and Dao Ba Thanh, 12, were tending buffaloes on a field in Hai Chanh commune in the central province of Quang Tri Thursday morning when the bomb exploded, Bui Thi Thu Van, an official with the commune's People's Committee said.

All three children were killed on the spot, he said.

"We don't know why the bomb exploded, but we think that the children were playing with the bomb," Van said. "We found them lying dead on the field after the explosion."