Hanoi - Vietnam reduced retail gasoline prices 5.2 per cent Thursday after world crude oil prices fell below 120 dollars a barrel, a government official said.

The price was reduced from 19,000 dong (1.14 dollars) to 18,000 dong per litre, Deputy Trade and Industry Minister Nguyen Cam Tu said.

"The price of gasoline was reduced because of many factors, and the most important factor is the decline of world crude oil prices," Tu told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We reduced the price for the sake of society."

Hanoi - India's Tata Steel Ltd has inked a deal with two Vietnamese state corporations to build a 5-billion-dollar joint-venture steel complex in the communist country, an official said Thursday.

The new project is the fifth major steel plant in development in Vietnam, where steel consumption and imports have risen rapidly with its economic growth.

Tata Steel signed the agreement with Vietnam Steel Corp and Vietnam Cement Industries Corp in Hanoi Wednesday, said Pham Chi Cuong, chairman of the Vietnam Steel Association.

The Vietnam steel project will give 65% equity stakes to Tata Steel Global Holding, and a 30% stake in Thach Khe iron Ore Company.

Hanoi - A deputy transportation minister involved in a major corruption scandal in 2006 was demoted by Vietnam's Communist Party, the Vietnam News reported Wednesday.

The demotion was the latest development in an affair that has become a touchstone for press freedom in Vietnam after two journalists who had aggressively reported the scandal were arrested in May.

Deputy Transportation Minister Nguyen Viet Tien, a senior Communist Party official, was demoted by the party secretariat for "failure to properly supervise Project Management Unit 18," Vietnam News said.

The paper said the secretariat also asked Prime Minister Nguyen Tien Dung to fire Tien from his Transportation Ministry post.

Hanoi  - Vietnam's central bank said the country's currency had stabilized and projected the 2008 trade deficit would be less than 20 billion dollars, state media reported Tuesday.

State Bank Governor Nguyen Van Giau said foreign currency reserves were sufficient to cover the trade deficit and would be bolstered in coming months by rising export revenues and remittances from Vietnamese working abroad.