Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, who undertakes his maiden visit to India early next month, has sought Indian investment in its energy sector, including civil nuclear power, and firmly backed New Delhi's bid for permanent membership of the U N Security Council.

In a wide-ranging interview to a group of visiting Indian journalists here, Dung said his visit from July four to six is aimed at bolstering cooperation with India in all areas including security, energy and education in order to give a 'new high' to bilateral ties.

To a question about India's search for energy security and cooperation in this regard with Vietnam, he said Hanoi was interested in providing energy and welcomed investment from India to Vietnamese energy sector in areas ranging from production of gas and setting up power plants based on coal imported from India.

"Vietnam is interested in providing energy to India and in Indian investment in our energy sector, to explore and produce natural gas. Vietnam welcomes Indian investment in power generation based on coal and gas and even nuclear power," Dung said.

His remarks assume significance as officials and experts from Vietnam and International Atomic Energy Agency had last week held consultations here on developing nuclear power to meet the rising energy-hunger of this South East Asian country which was the worlds second fastest economy in 2006.