The prime minister of Vietnam was met by angry protests and sharp questions about human rights as he kicked off a historic week-long visit to America with a stop in Seattle yesterday.

A contingent of about 300 Vietnamese emigres demonstrated outside a downtown hotel as the communist leader, Phan Van Khai, conducted a press conference inside, police said. A police spokeswoman, Christie-Lynne Bonner, described the demonstrators as “pro-democracy.”

Some critics of Mr. Khai carried banners denouncing the regime in Hanoi. The protesters shouted “Down with Communists” and some carried signs that read, “Khai Is Another Saddam Hussein,” the Associated Press reported. Mr. Khai, who is the highest-ranking Vietnamese official to tour America since the war ended in 1975, is scheduled to meet President Bush at the White House tomorrow.

Mr. Khai said yesterday that the demonstrators were out of touch with recent developments in their homeland.

“We’d like you to remember Vietnam has undergone 30 years of war. And during the war some stood on this side and some stood on the other side, and that happened even in a family,” the prime minister said through an interpreter. “Some of them have left Vietnam, and they may have some prejudices against Vietnam, but if they come home, come back to the homeland, and they have returned, in reality, they will have different views.”

Mr. Khai told reporters that the Vietnamese are proud of the efforts the Communist Party has made to develop the country. “The Vietnamese people would not be ashamed of the role played by the party and the State of Vietnam that has led the nation to the great success in recent years,” he said.

The session with journalists concluded with some drama after a Vietnamese-American man, Binh Quoc Huynh, put forward pointed questions to the visiting Vietnamese official about alleged abuses of religious freedom and profiteering by Communist Party officials. “You don’t respect the human rights and democracy in Vietnam,” said Mr. Huynh, who identified himself as a Nazarene minister from Oregon and a writer for the Web-based Vietnam News Network. “You still put the Catholics in the cell and you abuse the Vietnamese Christians,” he said, adding that those who do not join the Communist Party are “really poor.”

Mr. Khai acknowledged that the country’s human rights record is less than perfect, but he denied any religious persecution. “You should come back to Vietnam and you will see a lot of progress has been made in the promotion of religious and human rights issues since the national liberation,” the prime minister said. “During the 1,000 years of history in Vietnam, there has never been a religious conflict in our nation. … In Vietnam, only those who are arrested because they break the law, not because of their religious activities.”

According to police, Mr. Huynh later shouted “murderer” and other epithets at the prime minister and was ejected by hotel security. On an audio recording of the conference, Mr. Huynh can be heard saying, “Don’t touch me. This is a free country. This is not Vietnam.”

Ms. Bonner, the police spokeswoman, said Mr. Huynh left the hotel voluntarily and there were no arrests.

Earlier yesterday, Mr. Khai toured a Boeing 737 production plant in a Seattle suburb. Vietnam Airlines recently reached an agreement with Boeing to purchase four of the company’s next generation 787 airliners. A signing ceremony of the formal contract is scheduled to take place tomorrow at the Commerce Department in Washington, D.C.

On the eve of Mr. Khai’s meeting with Mr. Bush, a Congressional subcommittee has scheduled a hearing to examine Vietnam’s record on religious freedom. Last September, the State Department listed Vietnam as a “country of particular concern” because of reports that Christians and Buddhists were persecuted by government officials.

One of the witnesses scheduled to speak at the hearing this afternoon, Nina Shea, said that in May the Vietnamese government headed off possible sanctions by entering into an agreement with the State Department on the issue of religious freedom.

“The contents are secret, but it’s been heralded as a step in the right direction,” said Ms. Shea, who monitors religious freedom issues for a human rights advocacy group, Freedom House.

Ms. Shea said there was little evidence that the regime’s attitude toward religious minorities had changed. “It seems like it’s just empty rhetoric,” she said. “We’re still receiving information that one of the Buddhist monks … is being threatened with death,” she added. “Christians and others are being pressured to recant their faith and forced to flee.” Ms. Shea said she did not understand why the religious freedom pact had to remain secret. “It’s troubling. We want to make sure Vietnam doesn’t think it can pull one over on us,” she said.

Business deals appear to be at the top of the Vietnamese agenda for the visit. A spokesman for the Boeing Company, which helped arrange the prime minister’s press conference and made a recording of the event available to reporters, said Mr. Khai had more than 200 people in his delegation. Many of them are Vietnamese businesspeople looking to strike deals with American firms, the spokesman, Peter Conte, said.

Later this week, Mr. Khai is scheduled to travel to New York, where he is expected to meet with business leaders and preside over the opening of the New York Stock Exchange.

On Friday, Mr. Khai is to travel to the Boston area for meetings with top officials at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Vietnamese-Americans critical of the communist regime have vowed to protest Mr. Khai’s visit at every stop. The planned visit also prompted demonstrations Saturday in Orange County, Calif., which is home to many Vietnamese-Americans.

American insurance companies are among those most eager to entertain Mr. Khai. Those firms view Vietnam as a potentially lucrative market and are eager to begin writing policies to the increasingly affluent Vietnamese.

New York Life is reportedly among the firms involved in Mr. Khai’s visit to New York. Efforts to reach a spokesperson for the company yesterday were unsuccessful.