HANOI, Vietnam — Vietnamese military leaders, in a meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said today they would try to do more to help the United States recover the remains of Americans missing in action in the Vietnam War.

According to a senior defense official in the meetings, the United States is asking for greater access to Vietnamese archives, as well as information about MIAs lost in Laos and Cambodia. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private.

The official said Rumsfeld raised the issue and said that MIA recovery is a national priority and "he said that we appreciated what they have done but we have some things we'd like them to do more of."

Currently there are 1,805 American troops unaccounted for from the war, including 1,376 in Vietnam, according to Marine Maj. Jay Rutter, deputy commander of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, which heads the recovery efforts here.