(Adds reaction from daughter of defendant, background, more comment from U.S. officials)

By Grant McCool

HANOI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Three Vietnamese-born U.S. citizens and four Vietnamese will be prosecuted on charges of plotting against the nation's communist government, officials said on Thursday in a move that could complicate efforts to improve trade ties.

The prosecutor included charges against an Orlando, Florida resident, Nguyen Thuong Cuc, whose 13-month-long detention has drawn attention in the United States before a Nov. 17-20 visit to Vietnam by President George W. Bush. She goes by the name Thuong Nguyen Foshee in the United States.

U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida has linked her release to passage of a bill granting Vietnam permanent normal trade relations status.

"Sen. Martinez is doing everything in his power as a U.S. senator to get Mrs. Foshee back to Florida," said his spokeswoman, Kerry Feehery.

Washington and Hanoi signed a trade deal on May 31 that helped Vietnam toward next week's expected accession to the World Trade Organization. Vietnam is the fastest-growing market for U.S. goods in Asia and the two countries have built a friendship mainly through business ties since restoring diplomatic relations in 1995, 20 years after the end of the U.S. war in Vietnam.

The White House has hoped to win approval of permanent normal trade relations with Vietnam before Bush visited the country. Feehery would not comment on whether Martinez plans to continue blocking a vote.

While active in Vietnam's pro-democracy movement, Foshee was not plotting against the government, said daughter Liz McCausland.

Foshee, 58, arrived in Orlando as a war bride in 1973, built up a large landscaping business and became a Republican activist. She rubbed elbows with Martinez, and supported President Bush's re-election effort in 2004.

McCausland, 34, an Orlando attorney, said her mother had gone to Vietnam for a nephew's wedding.

"I just want my mom to come home," she said.

One U.S. industry official said that Hanoi's decision to charge Foshee could get her home more quickly. It's possible they could decide to deport Foshee as security threat, thereby allowing her to return to Florida, the industry official said.

ACCUSED OF TERRORISM

Prosecutors in Vietnam had "asked the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court to bring to court seven defendants involved in a terrorism case" a statement carried by the official Vietnam News Agency said.

Foshee and two others are U.S. citizens, U.S. officials said. A fourth was listed as having a U.S. address and the remaining three were Vietnamese living in Vietnam.

The statement linked the seven to a Vietnamese-born resident of the United States, Nguyen Huu Chanh, who was suspected of plotting to bomb Vietnamese embassies.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in a separate statement that Foshee was held "for allegedly being involved in terrorist activities, but has not been brought to trial."

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman said consular officials had visited all three citizens, who are detained in Ho Chi Minh City.

Chanh, the accused ringleader, was detained in South Korea in the past year following a request by Vietnam. Chanh is a member of a U.S.-based group called Government of Free Vietnam but he has not yet been extradited.

The prosecutors said that "in order to carry out the plot, Nguyen Huu Chanh and his accomplices stopped at nothing, including terrorist bombing and using radio broadcasts to call for an uprising and then to stir unrest and upset the lives of cadres, public employees and ordinary people."

Security and anti-terrorism are major issues for leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum meeting in the Vietnamese capital Nov. 12-19. The group includes the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

The United States and European countries have praised Hanoi in the last two years for improving its human rights and religious rights record by allowing faiths to practice and by releasing some imprisoned dissidents and religious leaders. (Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington and Barbara Liston in Orlando)

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