HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) - A U.S. passenger jet landed in Vietnam today, the first since the Vietnam War ended nearly 30 years ago. United Airlines Flight 869, from San Francisco, arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, at shortly after 10 p.m.

The flight - carrying 347 people, including some Vietnamese who fled their country after the war - was the first U.S. commercial plane to touch down at Tan Son Nhat International Airport since the wartime capital of South Vietnam fell to the communists in 1975.

VIPs emerging from the blue and white plane were greeted by Vietnamese women wearing traditional white tunics and holding lotus blossoms and silk lanterns.

U.S.-Vietnam relations have improved considerably in recent years. The two countries established diplomatic ties in 1995, and in 2001 they signed a landmark trade agreement, followed by an aviation pact last year.

In November 2003, the first U.S. Navy ship since the Vietnam War docked on the Saigon River.

United Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy two years ago, is betting the daily flight to Vietnam will be a big moneymaker - Some 1 million ethnic Vietnamese who live in the United States, the largest population outside Vietnam, and many visit their homeland every year.