Local law enforcement and the Secret Service will increase security around downtown today amid concerns that hundreds of people from across the country are coming to Seattle to protest the arrival of Vietnam's prime minister, the highest-ranking Vietnamese leader to visit the United States since the Vietnam War.

Phan Van Khai will arrive today on a weeklong trip to promote trade and to improve diplomatic ties. He will meet today with Alan Mulally, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and tomorrow with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

He is expected to face major protests throughout his four-city tour from Vietnamese who oppose his regime and its poor human-rights record.

Protesters coming to Seattle say they plan to be peaceful. But in the past, violent protests have erupted even when artists and singers from Vietnam toured the United States.

Concerned that the Seattle demonstrations could get out of hand, officials said local law enforcement and the Secret Service will provide tight security around the prime minister and his delegation of about 200 politicians and business executives. Part of the prime minister's schedule will be kept confidential.

Seattle police will patrol the blocks around the Fairmont Olympic Hotel, where the prime minister will hold a press conference at 12:30 p.m., and at the Federal Building on Second Avenue, where protesters will rally at 2 p.m., a police spokeswoman said.

A dozen local Vietnamese leaders, who met yesterday at the Union Gospel Mission office in Rainier Valley to finalize demonstration plans, said the protest will be peaceful.

"We are all on the same page. We do not want this to turn violent," said Sai Nguyen, head of the Vietnamese-American Coalition in Northwest America.

It was hard to predict how many demonstrators might be on hand because many Vietnamese expatriates were scrambling to get to Seattle after the prime minister's itinerary circulated on the Internet in the past three days. The schedule changed several times, adding confusion for many protesters, who may demonstrate at several locations instead of one place as originally planned.

Those expected to demonstrate are mostly former South Vietnamese soldiers, prisoners of war, students, human-rights activists and refugees.

Local community leaders expect up to five busloads of protesters from San Jose and Orange County, Calif. Others will take red-eye flights from northern Virginia.

In Portland, the Vietnamese community raised $2,000 for two charter buses to send 100 protesters. Up to 300 protesters are expected from Tacoma, and caravans of protesters will drive from Salem, Ore., and Vancouver, B.C., according to several e-mails sent to community leaders in Seattle.

"The protests are insignificant," said Chien Bach, spokesman at the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, D.C. "It only represents a minority of the Vietnamese community here. I understand the feeling of the people who suffered from the war, but we Vietnamese people must move ahead."

Seattle is the first leg of the prime minister's tour to bring more investment to Vietnam and to seek President Bush's backing for its bid to join the World Trade Organization.

Before he left Hanoi, the prime minister told The Washington Post that Vietnam will send soldiers to the United States for training exercises and to share intelligence data. Khai said details will be announced Tuesday when he meets with President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

"We are [reaching] new heights in our relationship," said Bach, the embassy spokesman. The visits come on the 10th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic ties between the United States and Vietnam.

While in Seattle, the prime minister will encourage Gates to invest in Vietnam. With Boeing executives, he will celebrate a deal that Vietnam Airlines struck with Boeing last December to buy four wide-bodied 787-8 Dreamliners worth up to $500 million.

From here, Khai will fly to Washington, D.C., to meet Bush, then to New York City to ring the bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and to Boston to visit Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jim Pace, president of the Washington State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America, said many veterans welcome the prime minister with "open arms." Many Vietnam veterans have been traveling to Vietnam recently, and the prime minister's visit is a good thing, he added.

"I don't think you would see much opposition or protest from Vietnam vets," Pace said.

The tone is different in the Vietnamese community, especially with many former soldiers who said they were tortured in prison after South Vietnam fell in April 1975. They lost their houses, and their wives and children claimed discrimination under the new regime.

Others will protest alleged child trafficking and exploitation in Vietnam, according to several human-rights groups. Vietnam also is on the United States' list of countries of "particular concern" for its restriction on religion.

Tanya Tran, president of the Vietnamese Association of Cowlitz County, said her members "are not bitter because we lost the war, but we want to do this for the people in Vietnam who do not have freedom of speech or freedom of religion. We are their voices."

Tan Vinh: 206-515-5656 or tvinh@seattletimes.com