However, some minor deals were signed in the past week to ship around 30,000 tonnes of five and 10 per cent broken grades for delivery in June, they added.

``Exporters are reluctant to make large offers as the price trend is unclear and supplies remained weak,'' a Ho Chi Minh City-based trader said.

He said the recent price rises were caused by traders purchasing unhusked rice to qualify for government-sanctioned preferential loans in exchange for building large stocks.

High grade five per cent broken was quoted at $237-240 a tonne, FOB Saigon Port.

Ten and 25 per cent broken grades were being offered at $233 and $215-220 a tonne, respectively. Last week traders quoted 25 per cent broken grade rice at $212-215 a tonne.

More than 157,000 tonnes of rice was being loaded on 14 vessels this week at Saigon Port destined forAfrica, Indonesia, Iraq and Cuba.

Traders said rain had disrupted loading and only about 45,000 tonnes was shipped last week.

They said fresh rice supplies were flowing in from at least three provinces in the country's rice bowl Mekong Delta, and that harvesting of the summer-autumn crop was expected to peak later this month.

But farmers were still expected to hold back stocks and wait for fresh orders from Vietnam's main rice buyer, Indonesia, which holds elections on June 7.

Jakarta had previously announced it would tender for 500,000 tonnes of rice in June.

The official statistics office predicted on Wednesday, Vietnam would reap a bumper winter-spring crop this year with a total output of 13.9 million tonnes of unhusked rice, up 320,000 tonnes on the same crop last year.

Winter-spring harvesting in the South was completed in April, while in the North this harvest was expected to finish next month.

Dealers expect around 500,000 tonnes of rice to be exported this month, although a tradeministry official predicted the figure would be between 370,000 and 420,000 tonnes.

Vietnam's official target for rice exports is 3.9 million tonnes this year, up from 3.8 million tonnes shipped in 1998.

Official statistics show Vietnam exported 1.94 million tonnes from January-May, down 21.7 per cent over the same period last year.