Vietnam welcomes Bush; Indonesia braces for visit

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — President Bush paid tribute to new symbols of capitalism in this struggling communist country today and offered encouragement for Vietnam's battle against bird flu and other public-health challenges.

The president quickly toured this city, once known as Saigon, before flying to Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, where thousands angrily protested America's policy in the Middle East and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The White House said it was confident about security precautions for Bush's visit despite police warnings of an increased threat of attack by al-Qaida-linked groups.

The president was to spend just six hours in Indonesia, most of it at Bogor Palace, a presidential retreat outside the capital of Jakarta and far from the scene of protests where Bush was denounced as a "war criminal' and "terrorist."

While President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is a close U.S. ally in the war on terror, Bush is highly unpopular in Indonesia, where security forces were probing unconfirmed reports that a suicide bomber was planning to attack during Bush's visit today.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Bush visited the Vietnam stock exchange, where trading began in 2000 and expanded to Hanoi last year. The combined exchanges list 56 stocks and funds with total capitalization of $3.5 billion.

Bush's trip to Asia was his first appearance on the world stage since his Republican Party lost control of Congress and was rebuked for the unpopular war in Iraq.

To Bush's dismay, he was unable to deliver a promised agreement on normal trade relations with Vietnam. It was snarled in Congress, but the administration expressed confidence it eventually would be approved.

Bush was in Hanoi to attend the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

The White House supported the summit's closing statement prodding North Korea to return to nuclear-disarmament talks and urging nations to keep the pressure on by enforcing U.N. Security Council sanctions. But the administration was at a loss to explain why the statement was simply read as part of the chairman's wrap-up statement, and not issued as a written document.

U.S. officials later said that the reason the North Korea statement was delivered orally, rather than written, was because China did not want to sign a document with Taiwan.

At the summit, Bush met separately with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao to discuss strategy for yet-to-be-scheduled talks with North Korea.