Clinton, on the last day of his historic Vietnam visit, sat down with students, artists and young professionals in a Ho Chi Minh City art museum to try and take the pulse of the country's commercial engine, its new generation, an official said. "He wants to find out what people are thinking here, what's going on," said a U.S. Embassy official. "It will help him better understand this place." Half of the city's swelling population of more than 5 million were born after the Vietnam War, the protracted conflict that pitted Hanoi against Washington and left some 3 million people dead, including 58,000 Americans.

Clinton was then to address the Vietnam business community at the Saigon docks, where he will visit the Vietnam International Container Terminal to highlight the U.S.-Vietnam trade potential. The two sides have signed a landmark bilateral trade agreement which is expected to boost Vietnam's exports to the U.S. and American investment there once the pact is approved as expected next year. Later in the day Clinton was to meet city Mayor Vo Viet Thanh and hold a roundtable with government officials, religious groups and intellectuals. Clinton was greeted enthusiastically upon arrival late Saturday by robust crowds waving and cheering along the roads in from the southern city's Tan Son Nhat Airport. Security was heavy but generally unobtrusive as thousands of curious onlookers, mostly young Vietnamese on foot or on motorbikes, swarmed downtown in what appeared to be an improptu celebration. Clinton, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and their daughter Chelsea arrived from Hanoi, where Clinton opened what he called a "new chapter" in relations between the former foes by becoming the first U.S. president to visit a unified Vietnam. He was also the first American president to visit Hanoi. The last U.S. president to visit Saigon was the late Richard M. Nixon, who met with his country's troops during the war in 1969.

(dpa)