Vietnam's premier on Friday weighed in on a high-profile land dispute in the north, criticising the forced eviction of a fish farmer who resisted with landmines and a shotgun, an official said.

The January 5 incident in the port city of Hai Phong, in which farmer Doan Van Vuon injured six police officers as he resisted, has attracted unprecedented media attention in communist Vietnam.

"The decision to take back the land and the subsequent forced eviction of the farm were both illegal," said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, in quotes read to reporters by Vu Duc Dam, head of the government office.

Dung, who commissioned a report into the "regrettable" incident and chaired a meeting on the findings on Friday, called on local officials nationwide to "actively reconsider" their land management policies.

Land disputes with local authorities are an increasingly contentious issue in the communist country, where all land is owned by the state and usage rights are not always clear or protected.

Officials must ensure evictions and land seizures are carried out "in strict accordance with the law", Dung said, according to a report posted on the government website late Friday.

Vuon's violent defiance of the authorities is extremely rare in authoritarian Vietnam, but his plight has attracted sympathetic coverage and a number of high-ranking officials, including former president Le Duc Anh, have championed his cause.

For the last month, Vuon's name has dominated headlines in the country's tightly-controlled press, becoming a symbol of widespread discontent over official handling of land disputes, experts say.

Vuon is currently in detention as police investigate him for attempted murder while his house on the outskirts of Hai Phong -- Vietnam's third-largest city -- has been razed to the ground.

On Friday, Dung also asked officials to expedite Vuon's trial and requested they attenuate the charges against him.

Dung has also ordered an investigation into the destruction of Vuon's house, which he described as "a violation of the law" saying that anyone found responsible would be punished, Dam said.

On Tuesday, two members of the local authorities were suspended for their role in the botched eviction.