Fed: Hopes Cheney could visit later in year: US Embassy

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Fed: Hopes Cheney could visit later in year: US Embassy

By Rob Taylor, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

CANBERRA, April 8 AAP - US Vice-President Dick Cheney may still visit Australia thisyear despite cancelling a trip planned for Anzac Day due to the war in Iraq.

Mr Cheney, a close friend of Prime Minister John Howard, was slated to visit Australiaover Anzac Day to discuss the ongoing war in Iraq.

Pre-visit security staff had already travelled to Australia to check the planned itineraryfor possible danger zones.

But the visit was cancelled for the time being as the war continued to drag on in andaround Baghdad.

"The thing was canned," a US embassy spokesman said.

"He felt his place was in Washington at the moment."

But he said Mr Cheney could still visit later this year when the US Congress rose forthe summer between July 4 and September 1, or around the November Thanksgiving holiday.

"That's the hope," he said.

He said the embassy was unaware whether President George W Bush could also visit tosay thank you for Australia's support in Iraq.

But he said such a visit could proceed reasonably quickly with many of the securityissues already tackled by Mr Cheney's advance teams.

Mr Howard's office recently issued an invitation to Mr Bush to make the first visitby a US president since Bill Clinton in 1996.

The embassy spokesman said staff also expected Secretary of State Colin Powell andDefence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to visit later in the year for talks with their Australiancounterparts at the so-called AUSmin meeting.

"Traditionally it is the secretary from both the department of state and the departmentof defence who participates," he said.

Mr Howard said at the weekend he intended to visit Washington in the near future.

AAP rft/sb/ph/br

KEYWORD: CHENEY AUST