HANOI -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan van Khai has dismissed his deputy police minister for links to the country's most notorious gangster, three months after another deputy was sacked, state media said Saturday.

Khai signed the directive ousting Hoang Ngoc Nhat from his government position and demoting him from major general to colonel on Friday.

"Hoang Ngoc Nhat was disciplined for some violations, including ones relating to the case of Nam Cam and his underlings," the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, the ***Nhan Dan*** said, without elaborating, AFP reported.

Nhat, whose reputation has taken a battering in recent years over corruption allegations, is the second deputy police minister to be dismissed for involvement with the Ho Chi Minh city-based crime boss, now in custody.

In August Bui Quoc Huy was given the boot, a month after he was expelled from the party's central committee for allowing the Mafia gang to operate with impunity in Ho Chi Minh city between 1996 and April 2001 while he was its director of police.

Two other senior party officials have also been disciplined for their involvement in Nam Cam's gambling-to-prostitution rackets.

The head of the Voice of Vietnam Radio Tran Mai Hanh was expelled from the powerful 150-strong committee in July and dismissed from his post the following month.

The deputy director of the state prosecution panel Pham Sy Chien was removed from his position in August.

Earlier this month, the government published a list of the 156 people who will be prosecuted when the Nam Cam trial opens on December 12 in the southern commerical capital.

Huy, Hanh and Chien were among those named.

The Nhan Dan did not say if Nhat will also face trial during the proceedings which are expected to last a month.

His dismissal is likely to further undermine confidence in the party and reinforce widespread misgivings among the country's predominantly rural population about its rulers and their self-serving nature.

Vietnam's top leaders have repeatedly vowed to crack down on corruption, a major concern among the foreign investment community, and have touted the Nam Cam investigation as proof that no one is above the law.

Nam Cam, more formally known as Truong van Cam, was first arrested in May 1995 and sent to a reeducation camp, but was released after 30 months after intervention by senior government officials alleged to be on his payroll.

He was arrested again in December last year on murder, gambling, drug-trafficking, prostitution and extortion charges, triggering a series of exposes in the state press about the beneficiaries of his underworld network.

Subsequently, dozens of other police and officials have been disciplined for accepting pay-offs to turn a blind eye to the gang's activities, which centered around running illegal gambling dens and karaoke joints-cum-brothels.

The 55-year-old crime boss will face seven charges, including murder, running illegal gambling parlours and bribery, during the trial.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Government sources have told AFP that foreign reporters are likely to be denied access to the proceedings, which may throw up more revelations about Nam Cam's links with state officials.