Tuesday marks the deadline for the State Department to recommend to Congress and the president actions against Vietnam, as well as Saudi Arabia and Eritrea.
Six months ago the three were added to a list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act, and the State Department has been consulting with the governments ahead of the deadline.
If Vietnam does not respond to U.S. government concerns by the time the consultation period ends on March 15, the CPC designation carries statutory penalties, according to the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
In what has been seen as a bid to stave off sanctions, Hanoi in recent weeks released some religious prisoners and announced some concessions relating to Protestant groups' activities.
Critics are unimpressed.
"Despite a few well-timed goodwill gestures ... Vietnam has in all other respects continued its exceptionally repressive policies," said Human Rights Watch director for Asia, Brad Adams.
"Vietnam is notorious for persecuting and imprisoning believers of religions who attempt to peacefully and independently practice their faith."
Among the groups targeted by the communist authorities are Protestant Christians belonging to the Hmong and Montagnard ethnic minorities, Mennonites, and independent Buddhists. Several Roman Catholic priests remain in prison.
Last month, Hanoi included four prominent religious rights campaigners among more than 8,000 prisoners freed in a Lunar New Year amnesty.
Several weeks later the government announced new "instructions" on Protestantism.
It said that Protestant churches in Central Highlands, home to the Montagnards, and the northwest provinces, where Hmong live, would now be allowed to operate, on condition they renounced links to groups accused of organizing anti-government protests.
According to a report by the official Voice of Vietnam, the government complained that "Protestants in the Central Highlands are often incited by Fulro reactionaries while those in the northwest are superstitious followers."
(Fulro is French for the United Struggle Front for the Oppressed Races, a resistance group which fought alongside the Americans during the Vietnam War.)
The government said such "unrecognized sects" should register with local officials, and would be recognized if they met "necessary conditions."
The USCIRF, an independent, statutory body set up to make policy recommendations relating to religious freedom, said the prisoner releases and guidelines on Protestant churches were "positive steps" but did not go far enough.
"The instructions remain qualified and vague and open to interpretation by local government officials and public security forces," commented commission chairwoman, Preeta Bansal.
Adams said under the new directive religious groups still had to obtain permission to function, "advancing Vietnam's official stance that religious freedom is a privilege to be requested and granted by the government, rather than a fundamental human right."
Vietnamese-American activists want the administration to take steps against Hanoi.
In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Vietnamese-American Public Affairs Committee (VPAC) president Bing Vo said the group supported USCIRF suggestions that Vietnamese officials responsible for violations should be identified and refused entry into the U.S.
It also urged the State Department to dedicate up to one million dollars in funding to programs directly promoting religious freedom in Vietnam.
"These are not economic sanctions, but targeted responses that directly address the problem," Vo said.
Another U.S.-based campaigner, Kok Ksor of the Montagnard Foundation, asked the administration to take "concrete action" that would send a clear message to Hanoi.
"We understand the world is complicated and politics is difficult but we just want to see that our people's voice is raised so that we are not forgotten," Ksor wrote in a letter to President Bush and Rice.
According to Human Rights Watch, more than 180 Montagnard Christians have been arrested and jailed since 2001, "many on charges that they are violent separatists using their religion to 'sow divisions among the people' and 'undermine state and party unity'."
Past attempts to link U.S. aid to Vietnam to that country's human rights record ran into opposition from Sen. John Kerry.
Four years ago the Massachusetts Democrat, who was chairman of the foreign relations committee's East Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee, blocked legislation that had passed the House of Representatives by a 410-1 vote, arguing that denying aid to Hanoi would be counterproductive.
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