Vietnamese authorities have lodged an official protest with Malaysia following press reports that a 21-year-old Vietnamese woman was auctioned off in a marketplace, state media reported today.

The Vietnamese ambassador in Kuala Lumpur sent a note to Malaysia's Home Affairs Ministry "protesting against any act of trading Vietnamese women, and seeking their help to identify the woman," the Tien Phong newspaper said.

Malaysia's Chinese-language daily Guangming reported that the woman offered herself for sale last week during a morning market in a village in Gombak, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

She came to the village with a 40-year-old peddler who made the offer on her behalf, it said, adding that the woman apparently volunteered to be sold because she had been in Malaysia for some time and had used up all her money.

It did not say what she had been doing while in Malaysia or how much she was sold for.

The auction started at 7am and was concluded four hours later when a 60-year old man bought her, the report said. It was unclear whether the Malaysian man intended to make her his wife, surrogate daughter or maid.

Some of the villagers asked the peddler for his mobile number for future reference in case he had any more women to offer.

Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung protested on Tuesday.

Ban illegal marriage brokerage

Marriages between foreigners and Vietnamese women "must be on a voluntary basis and obey the laws," he said. "Any case of illegal marriage brokerage must be banned."

Ha Thi Khiet, chairwoman of the Vietnamese women's union, wrote an open letter to her Malaysian counterpart to describe the case as "offensive towards women's honour and dignity."

"It needs to be condemned... Trafficked women in any form are victims and they need to be protected and helped," she wrote.

Late last month, South Korea had to apologise to Vietnam after a Seoul daily published a photograph showing Vietnamese would-be brides lining up for a Korean suitor.

Several match-making companies have helped thousands of mainly Chinese, Taiwanese and South Korean men find brides in communist Vietnam.

A number of Vietnamese women have agreed to marry foreigners with a hope of escaping poverty in a country where the annual per capita gross domestic product is 640 dollars and an ordinary worker earns only two dollars a day.