US delegation on POWs and MIAs postpones trip to Vietnam

The visit of two senior United States officials to Hanoi has been postponed, diplomatic sources say here. The officials were to discuss US personnel unaccounted for since the Vietnam war. Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage and Assistant Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz, due in Hanoi later this week, are said to have delayed their visit after hearing that Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach would not be in Hanoi to receive them. Mr. Thach is now in Moscow, en route to Luanda, Angola, for the next meeting of the nonaligned nations.

Before the US postponement, the Vietnamese reportedly told Washington that an official of equivalent rank to Armitage and Wolfowitz would confer with them. Hanoi also reportedly suggested that the talks take place during the coming United Nations General Assembly.