Vietnam`s president hailed his country`s friendship with Venezuela Wednesday in the first visit by a head of state from the communist nation here, which was set to focus on oil and gas ties.

Nguyen Minh Triet was due to meet President Hugo Chavez on Thursday, during the two-day trip, before traveling to Lima, Peru, for an Asia-Pacific summit.

The Vietnamese leader hailed friendship between Venezuela and Vietnam during a ceremony at the national mausoleum in Caracas.

`We are grateful for the support and solidarity that they (Venezuelans) have offered us until now,` Triet said.

Triet and Chavez were expected to discuss a joint development fund similar to deals Venezuela has with China and Iran, and to sign oil and gas deals, officials said here.

Since Chavez toured Vietnam in 2006, his government has stepped up bilateral relations with the Southeast Asian nation, whose Communist Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh visited Caracas early last year.

State-run energy companies Petroleos de Venezuela and PetroVietnam have announced a number of joint projects since the Chavez visit. PetroVietnam has a concession in the oil-rich Orinoco basin in eastern Venezuela.

Following a meeting of officials last August, Venezuela`s Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said both companies had agreed to deals for transporting Venezuelan oil to Vietnam, where they would also build a joint oil refinery.

During his Vietnam trip, Chavez, one of Washington`s fiercest critics, praised Vietnam`s revolutionary history and attacked the United States for its `imperialist` crimes in the Vietnam War and other conflicts.

Triet on Wednesday lauded a group of Venezuelans who captured a US soldier on their soil during the Vietnam war in an unsuccessful bid to prevent the execution of a Vietnamese revolutionary.

Rich in offshore oil reserves, Vietnam lacks refining capacity, forcing the country of 86 million to import refined petroleum products.

Vietnam and Venezuela set up diplomatic ties in 1989, but bilateral trade reached only 11.7 million dollars last year, according to the Vietnam News Agency.