The administration of President George W. Bush scrambled yesterday to play down the significance of the US House of Representatives defeating a motion to treat Vietnam as a full trading partner.

The leadership of the House, which remains in Republican hands until the newly elected Democrat-controlled Congress takes over in January, decided on Tuesday night not to call for another vote on the bill to grant Vietnam so-called "permanent normal trade relations" after it failed to get the requisite two-thirds majority on Monday.