Scientists from both countries will work at a new Delta Research and Global Observation Network (DRAGON) institute, the first of several that are due to be set up worldwide, at southern Vietnam's Can Tho University.

Vietnam is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change, said Tran Thuc, head of the Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Environment.

"If the sea level rises by about one metre (three feet), the whole Mekong Delta will be submerged."

The densely-populated Mekong Delta, a region of canals and waterways south of Ho Chi Minh City, is Vietnam's main rice growing region and produces more than half the country's fish and seafood exports.

The US-led project hopes to include data in future from 10 countries to gather information on deltas including those of the Nile, Yangtze and Volga rivers, said Gregory Smith, head of the National Wetlands Research Center of the US Interior Department.

The aim was to gather "large-scale data sets" to help in modelling the impact of rising sea levels and worsening cyclonic storms on river deltas, and on the man-made structures and communities in them, he said.

For the US side, the chief aim is to make the Mississippi Delta resilient to climate change, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans and nearby areas in 2005, Smith said.

He said the International Panel on Climate Change had this year "identified mega-deltas around the world that are at risk from cyclonic storms and would result in massive human displacement."

"The Mekong is the extreme," he said. "The Mississippi has a moderate amount of vulnerability."

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