HANOI (AFP) - The head of the European Union's executive arm, Romano Prodi, said Vietnam was making solid progress in bilateral talks aimed at clearing the way to its entry into the World Trade Organisation.
"Difficult problems are on the table still but we are going to work in the next days to try to solve them in this section (of negotiations)," the European Commission chief said after talks with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai.
Prodi said "80 percent" of Vietnam's negotiations with the EU on its trade and industry WTO chapter had been resolved, while for services the figure was "60 percent".
But he added that communist-run Vietnam should accompany its economic progress with "a parallel political progress".
Prodi met the Vietnamese leader on the margins of an Asia-Europe summit in Hanoi, where he was accompanied by EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who has overall charge of the EU's WTO talks with the country.
Under WTO rules, an applicant nation must reach an individual trade deal with any member that requests it and complete an overall package of reforms to bring it in line with international trade law.
Vietnam, which is also holding bilateral WTO talks with the United States, first applied for membership of the Geneva-based club in 1995 but negotiations did not start until 2002.