Hanoi - Vietnam officially thanked Russian medical experts and scientists for their help in preserving the body of founding Communist leader Ho Chi Minh, state media reported Tuesday.

Defence Minister Phung Quang Thanh told a visiting delegation of Russian experts on Monday that the Vietnamese people "have always cherished" their support.

The Vietnam News reported the delegation, led by Professor Vladimir Yagurin of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, was in Vietnam to work on the body of the revered former leader.

Ho Chi Minh's body has been preserved for viewing in a mausoleum on Hanoi's Ba Dinh Square since soon after his death in 1969. Millions of Vietnamese and foreign tourists visit the mausoleum every year.

The mausoleum closes each year between September and December while Russian and Vietnamese experts work on the body.

Ho Chi Minh is one of four Communist leaders whose bodies remain preserved for exhibit in mausoleums, the others being Russia's Vladimir Lenin, China's Mao Zedong, and North Korea's Kim Il Sung. (dpa)