Trade deal a boost for Vietnam deputy HANOI - Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung reinforced his status in the government, and perhaps an eventual leadership claim, by playing a pivotal role in a landmark trade deal with the United States this week. Vietnam and the United States reached agreement in principle on the trade pact on Sunday after several days of marathon talks -- and only after Dung twice intervened at critical moments to break negotiating deadlocks, sources close to the deal said. One occasion was late last Saturday night when Vietnamese negotiators refused to budge on certain sticking points, prompting U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Richard Fisher to seek urgent talks with Dung, they said. Kind words for Vietnam's communist leadership have been sparse in recent years as the country's economic reforms grind to a halt. But in a rare outpouring of praise, U.S. officials and investors have heaped accolades on Dung for his role in the deal. Dung has already been touted as a future prime minister, and Western diplomats said if the trade pact brought clear benefits to Vietnam, his key role in the talks might support any claim he eventually makes for the top government post. Fisher, who negotiated the last-minute details of the pact in Hanoi, twice went out of his way to praise Dung, who is also the central bank governor, as an able reformist. ``Deputy Prime Minister Dung played a vital role in these negotiations,'' Fisher said at a news conference on Sunday to announce the deal. ``He is a very impressive man.'' Sources close to the deal said the elite Communist Party Politburo -- of which Dung is a member -- had already decided several weeks ago that Vietnam wanted a deal with Washington on the trade agreement. They said the 19-member politburo realised that if a deal was not struck soon, it might not give the U.S. Congress enough time to approve the trade agreement because Washington would be gearing up for U.S. presidential elections next year. In that sense Dung was not flexing his own muscles, but those of the politburo, against remaining obstacles to the deal, which the sources said were mainly state-owned firms. They said some state-owned company bosses were lukewarm to the pact because it would open up Vietnam to more competition and cut protective trade barriers. Nevertheless, Dung would be remembered as the man who broke the deadlock, the sources added. In the arcane world of Vietnam's faceless decision-making process, where conformity counts more than initiative and charisma, Dung has proved somewhat of an enigma. An affable man who cuts a dashing figure with slicked-back hair, Dung appears confident in public and likes to joke with reporters, though he rarely reveals much information. Dung's career appeared to have been capped when he was dropped from the so-called five-member inner politburo early last year following a meteoric political rise. But analysts now believed that move was probably not so significant because the inner politburo had little real power, making decisions only after consultation with the full body. Foreign and local bankers have speculated for months that Dung would also soon leave his post as central bank governor, which had always been a temporary position, and be replaced by Le Duc Thuy, current number two at the bank. Born in a southern province in Vietnam, Dung studied law, served in the army until 1981 and trained at the Nguyen Ai Quoc party ideological academy in the 1980s. He was made a deputy interior minister in 1994 and joined the politburo in mid-1996. He became first deputy prime minister in 1997 with responsibility for the economy. Reuters - July 28, 1999.