Ambassador Michael Michalak briefed the group on US plans to use US$3 million on “environmental remediation and health activities” in Vietnam, according to a statement released by the American Embassy in Hanoi Friday.

He told members of the Dialogue Group that final steps were being taken to determine exactly how the funds would be spent.

Last September, the Ford Foundation – the charity organization that funds the Dialogue Group – pledged US$7.5 million for a Vietnamese program to rehabilitate Agent Orange victims in 2008 and 2009.

The US and its allies dropped over 11 million gallons of Agent Orange on Vietnam between 1961 and 1971 to deprive their enemies of forest cover and food, according to a BBC report.

Over 10 percent of the country was hit with the herbicide/defoliant.

Fourteen percent of the area targeted was farmland, said the BBC.

Dioxin released by Agent Orange has since been linked to a wide range of health problems, from birth defects to cancer.

Over four million Vietnamese today still suffer from Agent Orange-linked afflictions.

US veterans, as well as veterans from South Korea, New Zealand and Australia, have all received compensation for damages caused by Agent Orange.

No Vietnamese has ever received compensation.

Reported by Thu Thuy