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　　Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh (L front) hosts a welcome ceremony for U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (C front) in Hanoi, capital of Vietnam, June 4, 2012. Panetta arrived in Vietnam on Sunday, kicking off a three-day visit to the country.(Xinhua/Li Dan)

　　HANOI, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam and the United States agree to expand defense cooperation in five key areas, including continuing high-level dialogues, maritime security, search and rescue operations, peace-keeping operations, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief.

　　The statement was made by the visiting U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a press briefing here on Monday.

　　Panetta said during the talks with Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh, both sides discussed some very important steps for the future, including the implementation of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which was signed between the two countries at the end of last year to advance defense cooperation, cooperation with Vietnam on maritime relations and the commitment to a peaceful, prosperous and secure Asia-Pacific region.

　　"It has been only 17 years since normalization of U.S. and Vietnamese diplomatic relations. Our meeting today was an opportunity to review how far we come over this relatively short period and level up the defense relationship between the two countries," he said.

　　Panetta also thanked Vietnam for opening three new sites in the country for excavation by the U.S. side to search for troop remains from the Vietnam war.

　　Vietnamese Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh, for his part, said the United States and Vietnam will continue to cooperate in the bombs and mines clearance, and Agent Orange/dioxin detoxification.

　　"We will continue our bilateral cooperation in the spirit of mutual benefits of the two countries, with respects of the sovereignty of both sides, for the peace and stability in the region and the world, without doing harms to any third parties," General Thanh said.

　　After the conference, Leon Panetta and Phung Quang Thanh exchanged artifacts collected during the war -- letters written by a U.S. soldier, and a small diary belonging to a Vietnamese soldier.

　　U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay on Sunday, kicking off a three-day visit to the country, following the Shangri-La Dialogue that ended in Singapore.