US President Barack Obama says his country will lift a decades-long arms embargo on Vietnam. He made the announcement after a meeting with Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang in Hanoi.

"The United States is fully lifting the ban on the sale of military equipment to Vietnam that has been in place for some fifty years. As with all our defence partners sales will still need to meet strict requirements including those related to human rights but this change will insure that Vietnam has access to the equipment it needs to defend itself and remove a lingering vestige of the cold war," said Obama.

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Obama also said the US Congress will approve the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal he has championed. Obama is the third U.S. president to visit Vietnam since ties were restored in 1995. He has made a strategic 'rebalance' towards Asia a centrepiece of his foreign policy.