News that there was a conference in Hanoi this month on the health and environmental effects of Agent Orange did not impress Buddhist nun Ngoc Nga, who runs a boarding school for children affected by the defoliant in Dong Nai province, near this city in southern Vietnam.

For the 36-year-old nun, her students are sufficient proof of the birth defects and other diseases caused by Agent Orange and other dioxins, which were sprayed over Vietnam during the Vietnam War more than three decades ago.

''What I am interested in is that will the conference end up in some humanitarian aid for these young victims,'' the Buddhist nun Ngoc Nga said.

Pham Ngoc Tien, deputy director of social affairs in the northern province of Thai Binh, was more blunt. ''We hope that through this sort of conference all those international scientists will help put pressure on the US to pay up''.

''This thing is going on into the third generation, they've really got to start compensating our people for the damage they caused,'' he added.

By the yardstick set by Ngoc Nga and Pham Ngoc Tien, the three-day conference organised by Vietnam's Ministry of Health and the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (Niehs) has fallen short of being relevant to the needs of the Agent Orange victims: it resulted only in the establishment of a framework for joint Agent Orange research.

Hanoi and Washington, the two former foes, agreed to set up a joint advisory committee to conduct further research on the effects that Agent Orange and dioxins have on Vietnamese health and environment.

Moral responsibility

Vietnam has many times pointed out that the United States has a moral responsibility to Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and should help the country in its research efforts into the effects of this chemicals.

Indeed, conferences like the last one this month aims to ''to bring dioxin contamination across Vietnam down to internationally acceptable levels and do all that can be done to mitigate the health effects'', vice-minister of Science, Technology and Environment Pham Khoi Nguyen said.

Vietnam estimates that between 1961 and 1970, the US air force sprayed 72 million litres of toxic chemicals containing Agent Orange/dioxin on different areas in the country, with serious consequences to people's health and the environment to this day.

NGOs and groups like the Vietnam Veterans of America and the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society want the United States to be more forthcoming in helping Hanoi deal with the long-term effects of Agent Orange from the war.

''When you speak of AO and its effects, remember its source,'' said Britain-Vietnam Frienship Society, Len Aldis. He says that a clean-up and extraction of the soil in the worst-affected areas in south Vietnam is needed  environmental toxicology programme, who also chaired this month's meeting.

''Findings have been presented (by Vietnam) that suggested some of those conclusions have been drawn and we are trying to understand better the basis for those. We need to look more closely at the information that underlies those conclusions,'' Portier said.

Vietnam lacks the means to provide absolute proof that each case is the result of the wartime defoliant. Tests still cost around US$10,000 a go, far too much for the cash-strapped Vietnamese government.

William Farland, from the EPA's research office said the United States is keen to provide technical assistance to bring down the costs of testing. He says the agency is taking part in a pilot project experimenting with a cheaper type of testing for dioxin in the central city of Danang, a major US base area during the war.

But the US$400,000 pilot research project is focused strictly on soil and sediment testing. EPA has been offering clean-up advice, but there had been no talk of the United States participating in such a clean-up.

Vietnam Veterans of America officials add that research is needed into programmes to prevent new contamination in hotspots and to mitigate adverse health conditions of those already sick.

Its president, Corey, believes that the issue of compensation for Vietnamese victims was one to be sorted out between the US and Vietnamese governments and between Vietnam and Dow Chemical Co and Monsanto Co.

''We feel. . . we can have answers in less than a few years,'' Carey said. ''I am talking no more than three years there can be significant answers by joint research.''