New floods fear in Vietnam

Fresh rains are expected to hit parts of central coastal Vietnam compounding despair across a region struggling to recover from two devastating floods in one month.

Floodwaters have been receding across the region, which stretches 650 kilometres and is home to eight million people.

But a meteorologist in Hanoi says weather patterns remain complicated and more rains were likely to hit southern parts of the affected areas.

Relief workers have expressed growing concern about how people would support themselves over the next three to six months.

The government is distributing rice and rice seedlings, but it was unclear if farmers would be able to sow the current crop of the staple on time this month.

Former Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet says damage from the two floods that have killed a combined 730 people is the heaviest the country had suffered since the decade-long Vietnam War, which ended in 1975.

=A9 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation