HANOI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - These are some of the leading stories in the official Vietnamese press on Tuesday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

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VIETNAM NEWS

-- Agribank sold 77 billion dong ($4.8 million) of its non-performing loans in two state-owned sugar refineries to the Finance Ministry's Debt and Asset Trading Co.

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NHAN DAN

-- The U.S. State Department's 2007 report on religious practices in Vietnam reflected positive development but it still carried inaccurate assessments, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said.

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SAIGON GIAI PHONG

-- Vietnam's trade deficit is forecast to reach a record $9 billion this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.

-- Regulations making the wearing of helmets on motorbikes compulsory could save about 8,000 lives a year, health officials said.

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LAO DONG

-- The Hanoi municipal government will have to resettle 170,000 people living near the Red River to make way for urban development. The project is estimated to cost about $7 billion, South Korean urban planning advisers said.

-- Police arrested a treasury officer at Techcombank Hanoi branch who is accused of embezzling bonds worth 1.28 billion dong ($79,000) and $8,000 in cash.

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TUOI TRE

-- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will lead a delegation to the U.N. General Assembly meeting in the United States later this month.

-- A Japanese firm has expressed interest to mine bauxite ore for the production of alumina in Bao Loc town in the central highland province of Lam Dong, the provincial chairman Huynh Duc Hoa said.

If approved, the $300 million project developed with Vietnam Chemical Corp would produce 600,000 tonnes of alumina a year.

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THANH NIEN

-- A woman died after a 22-week-old female foetus was removed from her liver, doctors in Ho Chi Minh City said. Pregnancy in the liver is rare, with 23 known cases worldwide, three of them in Vietnam, the doctors said.

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