Moscow - Russian energy monopoly Gazprom and aluminium mining giant RusAl clinched deals on Monday for development projects in Vietnam during the visit of the country's president to Moscow.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and his Russian counterpart President Dmitry Medvedev were at the signing of the joint projects at the Kremlin after talks on boosting trade and energy ties.

Gazprom and it overseas operations arm ZarubezhNefteGaz sealed a deal with Vietnam's state oil firm PetroVietnam for joint exploration of the Asian state's offshore oil reserves.

Medvedev told journalist at the signing that Russian-Vietnamese partnership in this sphere, "has already produced 175 million tons of crude and filled out the Russian budget by 7 million dollars."

United Company RusAl also reach an accord for an estimated 1 million dollar project to build an integrated bauxite-aluminum complex in Vietnam.

Investment by other Russian companies in Vietnam's natural resources, telecoms and automotive sector were also discussed, Russian officials said.

"In the last years many good and successful projects have been realized between us. These have been in the oil and gas sphere, power industry and the mining sector," Medvedev was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying ahead of the talks.

Russia in Soviet times invested heavily in the Vietnamese economy during the early 1970s and helped the Asian state develops major crude offshore facilities.

"Russia is becoming a stronger and more powerful country and contributing to stability and prosperity in the world," Triet said Monday, stressing the importance of relations with Russia for his country.

Trade between Russia and Vietnam in the first seven months of the year grew 64.8 per cent to nearly 900 million dollars. (dpa)