A Vietnam court is trying 37 members of a ring that circulated smuggled counterfeit Vietnamese currency in what amounts to the largest counterfeit trial in the country's history, a court official said Thursday.

The ring, led by a Chinese woman, Guo Jin Hua, 55, is accused of smuggling nearly 5 billion dong (300,000 dollars) in fake bills from China into Vietnam.

"This is the biggest trial ever relating to trading counterfeit money in Vietnam," said Truong Van Sa, chairman of the People's Court of Tien Giang province in southern Vietnam.

Sa said the trial, which began on Tuesday, was scheduled to last two weeks.

The ring was exposed in June 2007 when Tien Giang police arrested Le Minh Son, 30, and Nguyen Van Dung, 40, as they were on the way to distribute counterfeit money.

Based on their testimony, police arrested Guo Jin Hua in the northern province of Nam Dinh.

Prosecutors said Hua confessed that she and her accomplices had been circulating counterfeit money since September 2005. Hua said she hid the bills in objects such as milk cans, VCD players and electric cookers to bring them into the country undetected.

The money was printed in Taiwan, conveyed through China, and brought into Vietnam over back trails or through border gates.

According to Vietnamese law, counterfeiters face between three and seven years of imprisonment. In particularly serious cases, punishment can range up to life imprisonment or capital punishment.

According to the indictment, at least nine of the defendants will face sentences ranging from 12 years in prison to capital punishment.