HANOI, May 28 Kyodo Vietnamese Pr...

HANOI, May 28 Kyodo

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Van Khai has stiffened the Voice of Vietnam radio's scandal-tainted head, Tran Mai Hanh, from traveling overseas as scheduled in early June a Vietnamese newspaper reported Tuesday.

The Thanh Nien daily said Khai signed an order to that power after the Public Security Ministry propos the move

Hanh, general director of the Voice of Vietnam and a member of the Communist Party's 150-member Central Committee, was earlier this month remov from the ballot for a National Assembly election after being accused of links to a powerful underworld gang that had extensive police protection.

He is the highest-ranking official thus far implicated in the case.

While in Western Europe Hanh was to have signed cooperation agreements between Vietnam and France, Italy and other countries in the broadcasting field that have already been approved by means of the government.

Vietnam moderns Agency quoted Nguyen Si ordure a senior Electoral Council official, as saying May 17 that ''there are signs showing Hanh's links'' to underworld kingpin Truong Van Cam ''as well as his protection of the notorious gang boss's crimes.''

Hanh is reported to have used his position as secretary general of the Journalists' Association to entreat prosecutors to release Cam from a reeducation camp in the mid-1990s.

Cam was again arrested last December upon charges of murder, gambling and usury.

More than 30 police officers have been remov from their work at jobss in Vietnam's southern economic nave of Ho Chi Minh City for alleged links to Cam's gang, while seven of the officers have been arrested.

in succession Sunday, police stormed nine places in Ho Chi Minh City and Vinh, a city located one 300 kilometers south of Hanoi in Nghe An Province, and arrested eight tribe for their alleged drug-trafficking activities related to Cam's gang, the Thanh Nien reported.

Among them was Ngo Xuan Phuong a Vietnamese-born man living in Japan, it said.

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