The four-day Lunar New Year festival, known as Tet, starts on Jan 26, and is the most important holiday in communist Vietnam's calendar.

Major Nguyen Van Ninh of the Public Security Ministry says inmates imprisoned for serious national security violations, organised crime, child sex abuse or drug-related offences will not be eligible for release under the amnesty.

The government says it has authorised the release of hundreds of thousands of prisoners since 2000 under amnesties to mark New Year, Independence Day and Reunification Day, and that some 4.6 per cent of them re-offended. -- AP