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US can search in Laos for missing GIs, if...

Laos has called on the US to take steps to improve US-Laos relations to facilitate investigations concerning American soldiers missing in action in Laos , the Bangkok Nation Review reported Tuesday.

It quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Suban Saritthiraj in an interview in the Laotian capital of Vientiane as saying Washington wanted permission to further investigate the 1972 crash of a US C-130 transport plane. The US is not certain that all 13 crew members, downed in southern Laos during the Vietnam war, have been accounted for. He noted the US currently provides no foreign aid to Laos.