New Vietnam PM, president take over

The sweeping reshuffle puts in charge two politicians from the south, the country's industrial growth engine, who are party loyalists but have voiced support for speeding up a two-decade-old process of market reforms.

Nguyen Tan Dung took over as premier from veteran leader Phan Van Khai, 72, who retired last weekend after nine years on the job during which Dung served as his deputy and understudy in charge of economic and security affairs.

Dung is seen as a politically conservative all-rounder, with police and army experience and stints as state bank chief and deputy public security minister under his belt. At 56, he is post-war Vietnam's youngest prime minister.

Shortly before the vote, Dung vowed to "develop in a sustainable way, pull the country out of backwardness... fight corruption, waste and bureaucracy and meet the aspirations and wishes of the party, the army and the people."

The national assembly voted by 92 percent to appoint him.

Nguyen Minh Triet, 63, the party boss in the commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, was earlier appointed to the presidency in a national assembly vote to replace Tran Duc Luong, who also just retired aged 69.

A trained mathematician with a career politician's easy manner, Triet is popular with the foreign business community and is expected to bring a more hands-on approach to the largely ceremonial post.

He vowed Tuesday to "bring the spirit of reform to national development, with my experience as the leader of the most dynamic city in the country."

Both men were chosen in a carefully choreographed political ritual in the one-party state, months after they were annointed by regime elders at a party congress. There were no other candidates in Tuesday's votes.

In the reshuffle, the assembly also chose Hanoi party chief and old-school ideologue Nguyen Phu Trong, 62, as its new chairman on Monday.

Some observers saw the choice of northerner Trong as an attempt to balance the presence of the two more reformist leaders from the south, a region that has never been so well represented in post-war Vietnamese politics.

The 496-member assembly was also due to appoint new ministers to portfolios including foreign affairs and finance.

The changes come in a busy year for the country which in May signed a crucial trade deal with the United States that all but paved the way for Vietnam's accession to the World Trade Organisation in the coming months.