HANOI (AFP) - The US Congress will keep a close eye on Vietnam to ensure that the communist country fulfills its pledges to expand religious freedoms, US lawmaker Christopher Smith said here.   "The last thing we want is cosmetic changes," Smith, a Republican congressman from New Jersey, told a small group of journalists in Hanoi. "We're looking for meaningful, sustained, tangible progress. We are in a scrutiny phase now."

Last May, the US State Department said Vietnam had started easing religious restrictions as part of a bilateral accord made public ahead of the first visit by a Vietnamese prime minister to Washington since 1975. But last month, Washington kept the communist nation on a blacklist of "countries of particular concern on religious freedom".

Smith backed the move, saying Vietnam's intentions needed to be transformed into concrete acts, especially the end of any forced renunciations of faith and easier registrations for churches. Smith said he would meet in Vietnam with various religious leaders including a Catholic cardinal, leaders of the protestant Evangelical Church, and a senior member of the dissident Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV), who has been under de facto house arrest for years in Ho Chi Minh City.

The US lawmaker welcomed Tuesday's historical ordination of 57 new priests for dioceses in northern Vietnam at a ceremony led by a Vatican cardinal. Top of Form.  "It is a positive sign, we want to see more of it," Smith said.

But he said those practicing other religions should also be able to enjoy the same freedom.  "We want to leave no believer behind… Religious liberty is for all or you just don’t have it," he told journalists.

Ton Nu Thi Ninh, vice-chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Vietnam’s National Assembly, told the official Vietnam News Agency that Smith had not been invited to visit by the country’s parliament.

"Although we do not really have illusions on the possible impact of the visit on Chris Smith’s preconceived ideas, nonetheless in a spirit of openness (…), we are prepared to engage in candid and constructive dialogue" with him and all US lawmakers, she said.

"Let us hope that Mr Chris Smith’s visit this time will make a contribution, no matter how small, to the advancement of the Vietnam-US relationship."