The Australian Government has decided to allocate US$10.6 million for the world’s first research project on war veterans who participated in the Vietnamese war and their families.

Minister for Veterans' Affairs Bruce Billson said the research will be conducted for 200,000 people and its results will be announced by 2009.

Under a recent research, the children of war veterans in the Vietnamese war have a higher incidence of some certain diseases than normal such as congenital harelip and cleft plate and chipped vertebra.

Experts from the Military Health and War Veteran Centre will research into the spiritual and physical health of war veterans and their family and social status. In addition, the project will involve war veterans taking part in the war in East Timor.