Hanoi  - Taiwanese-owned condiment company Vedan has agreed to compensate Vietnamese farmers for damage from pollution it illegally discharged into a Vietnamese river for more than a decade, the company and farmers said Thursday.

"On the basis of our humanitarian responsibility to society, Vedan has offered a solution to share the farmers' losses to some extent," said Vedan lawyer Hoang Nhu Vinh.

Vinh said farmers would have to agree never to sue Vedan in order to receive payouts from the company.

Vedan representatives spent Monday and Tuesday negotiating with Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai province farmers' associations over the settlement.

"We only agreed that Vedan will give money to suffering farmers," said Tran van Quang, chairman of the Dong Nai Farmers' Association. "We have not reached consensus on how much money and when the money will be paid."

Quang said Vedan had stipulated that only farmers who could prove their losses to local authorities and the company would receive awards.

To date, 8,000 farmers in the provinces of Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau have petitioned the government demanding compensation from Vedan.

Nguyen Van Phung, Deputy Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Farmers' Association, said farmers had requested amounts ranging from 200 million dong (11,500 dollars) to over 1 billion dong (58,000 dollars).

Phung said negotiations over the compensation programme would take some time, and that the two sides could still end up in court.

From the mid-1990s until last year, Vedan's condiment factory in Dong Nai province illegally discharged untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River through concealed pipes.

The pollution made it impossible for local aquaculture farmers to raise fish and shrimp.

In October, Vedan was ordered to suspend operation and pay a 7.7 million-dollar fine. (dpa)