Vietnamese authorities have given permission for the first ever exhibition of nude photographs in the conservative communist country. Photographer Thai Phien said he got the go ahead to exhibit 48 of his nude photos in Hanoi on Nov. 24-27.

  "I was the first photographer in Vietnam that received a licence to open this type of exhibition," he said. Phien said he had to submit his photos to the censors, adding "it's lucky that the authorities accepted them."

  He also expects a collection of about 70 of his nude pictures will be published prior to the exhibition. The Thanh Nien newspaper said "Nude photos have gone on display in Vietnam before, but never has an exhibition consisted solely of nudes."

  The daily said censors in the southern commercial centre of Ho Chi Minh City earlier this year refused to allow a similar exhibition by a female artist because "they were not in accordance with Vietnamese customs and morality."

  Vietnam, whose 84,000,000 people are mostly Buddhist, is a socially conservative country.

  Films, books, photos and artistic works are often censored and those on sensitive topics such as sex are usually banned.