Cheney said Washington remains ready "to apply military force" (AFP)

DAVOS, Switzerland, January 24 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney urged Europe on Saturday, January 24, to join the United States in promoting democracy in the Middle East and beyond as the key to defeating terrorism.

In a speech intended to heal the rift between the U.S. and Europe over the U.S.-led Iraq war, Cheney told a gathering of political and business leaders at the World Economic Forum that Washington was committed to supporting "those who work and sacrifice for reform across and the greater Middle East", reported Reuters.

"We must confront the ideologies of violence at the source, by promoting democracy throughout the greater Middle East and beyond," said Cheney, a key architect of the controversial U.S. doctrine of pre-emptive war.

"We call upon our democratic friends and allies everywhere, and in Europe in particular, to join us in this effort," he told a packed session in this Swiss ski resort.

"Europeans know that their great experiment in building peace, unity and prosperity cannot survive as a privileged enclave surrounded on its outskirts by breeding grounds of hatred and fanaticism," he said.

But if diplomacy fails, the world must be "ready as a last resort to apply military force," Cheney argued, adding the offensive to oust captured Iraqi president Saddam Hussein showed the need for "the violent restraint of violent men".

Washington logged horns with several of its European allies, particularly France and Germany, over its unilateral invasion of Iraq without a U.N. mandate.

Europe and the United States should also join in encouraging the Iranian government to "honor the legitimate demands of the Iranian people", Cheney said.

He hailed the European efforts to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, referring to Iran's decision to sign the additional protocol of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and bids to convince Syria to scrap weapons programs.

With the U.S. military stretched by engagements in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, Cheney said "today that need is critical" for Europe and NATO to step up its troop deployment capacity, reaffirming Washington's commitment to the defense alliance.

The American vice president also credited "quiet diplomacy" for Libya's decision last month to abandon its unconventional weapons programs.

Last November, U.S. President George W. Bush said the people of the Middle East should have responsible democratic leaders, announcing a new American "forward strategy of freedom in the Middle East", a policy which drew flack from Arab countries.

World Cowboy

In another question and answer session, Cheney tried to erase the image of the United States as the world's cowboy.

But he acknowledged some "glitches" in the way the United States had implemented tighter security and immigration measures since September 11, Reuters said.

Sander Levin, a Democratic U.S. congressman, said Cheney's remarks reflected Washington's acknowledgement that "unilateralism wasn't working".

"I think what's happened is they have shifted ground without saying that they are," he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"How much they are really shifting remains to be seen."

Cheney defended the detention without trial of more than 600 suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, saying some would be prosecuted, some freed, and others handed over to their own countries.

Cheney also insisted that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, the central rationale for the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

He did not back off from the weapons claims even after the head of a U.S. team searching for the alleged weapons in Iraq quitted and doubted any such weapons ever existed.

David Kay, who leads the U.S. Iraq Survey Group (ISG), told Reuters Friday, January 23, that he came to realize that there were no such weapons in Iraq.