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GV EXT ZOOM IN TO SV Kissinger arrives, steps out of car and walks to villa and enters
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SV Policeman by road
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GV ZOOM IN TO SV Le Duc Tho and Xuan Thuy out of car and walk to villa and enter
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GV Arch de Triomphe with police in foreground
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SV U.S. delegate Isham out of car
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SV North Vietnamese delegate arrives and out of car
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Initials ESP/0335 ESP/0352



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: The tempo of the secret Vietnam peace negotiations picked up Thursday (11 January) as Dr. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho met for a fourth straight day. They conferred for six hours - their longest session since the resumption of their talks on Monday.

The meeting between Dr. Kissinger and Mr. Tho, held in the exclusive Paris suburb of St Nom-La-Breteche, were expanded to include technical experts who have been working on details of a ceasefire agreement.

At the regular peace conference in central Paris, acting U.S. delegation leader Heyward Isham called for a "sober de-escalation" of the angry rhetoric that had marked the talks recently, notably over the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

SYNOPSIS: The secret round of negotiations between Dr. Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho continued for the fourth consecutive day, Thursday. Dr. Kissinger - President Nixon's chief Vietnam negotiator - was first to arrive at the villa in the exclusive Paris suburb of St. Nom-La-Breteche.

Later in the day, technical experts - who have been working on details of a ceasefire agreement - joined the U.S. and North Vietnamese representatives in the secret talks. This was the first time, since these talks resumed on Monday, that the technical experts had been summoned.

The North Vietnamese representatives arrived about fifteen minutes after Dr. Kissinger. Le Duc Tho was accompanied by the head of the North Vietnamese delegation in Paris, Xuan Thuy. Their cordiality in waving to newsmen marked a slight thaw in the negotiations, that had been noticeably cold earlier in the week. The secret meeting lasted for more than six hours - the longest of the latest series of talks.

Meanwhile, in central Paris, negotiators were holding the one-hundred-and-seventy-third session of the regular Paris Peace Talks. Acting U.S. delegation leader Heyward Isham called for moderation in these talks also.

But while both sets of meetings were marked by a tone of moderation, officials emphasised that a settlement was not at hand.