US must show 'stomach' to win in Iraq- Cheney

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States must show it has the ''stomach'' to win in Iraq or it will confirm al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's view that Americans can be pressured to leave.

US allies helping in fighting terrorism -- Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states and Egypt -- must have confidence that the United States will stay until a successful outcome, he said yesterday.

''If the United States doesn't have the stomach to finish the task in Iraq, we put at risk what we've done in all of those other locations,'' he said on ''Fox News Sunday.'' Bin Laden's strategy is to push US presence out of the region through terrorism and Iraq is currently at the center of that battle, Cheney said. ''It's absolutely essential that we win there, and we will win there,'' he said.

Cheney defended the new plan by President George W Bush to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq and said critics had not produced an alternative proposal.

Democrats, who took control of Congress this year after winning November elections largely due to growing public anti-war sentiment, are planning a non-binding resolution to reflect opposition to the new troop deployment.

Cheney said such a gesture would not prevent the president from carrying out his policy.

''Congress, obviously, has to support the effort through the power of the purse, so they have got a role to play and we certainly recognize that,'' Cheney said. ''But also, you cannot run a war by committee.'' Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat, said he opposed withholding defense funding to signal opposition to the president's plan ''I don't support using the power of the purse because I think that sends the wrong message to our troops,'' Levin said on CNN's ''Late Edition.'' Cheney said while Democrats have criticized Bush's plan and advocated withdrawal, they have not offered an alternative strategy to the president's proposal.

He said the president did not conduct policy based on public opinion polls, which have shown increasing dissatisfaction with US involvement in the Iraq war.

''You cannot simply stick your finger up in the wind and say, 'Gee, public opinion's against, we better quit,''' Cheney said. Doing that would just ''validate the al Qaeda view of the world,'' he said.

Cheney said criticism from members of their own Republican Party had not made him or the president feel embattled. ''I've seen embattled administrations. This isn't one of them.'' IRAN 'FISHING' Tensions in the Middle East were raised after the US military's arrest of five Iranians in Iraq, accusing them of providing arms and money to militants. Iran called them diplomats and demanded their release, and Iraqi officials also said they should be freed.

''We've asked for their release,'' Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on CNN. He said while the Iranians had been working from an office that was not formally a consulate, it had been doing some consular services such as offering travel permits.

Cheney said Iran has created tensions throughout the region by pursuing nuclear weapons, supporting extremists, and providing improvised explosive devices inside Iraq.

''It's been pretty well known that Iran is fishing in troubled waters, if you will, inside Iraq, and the president has responded to that,'' Cheney said.

The United States was not getting ready for a military conflict with Iran, White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley said.

''The president has said very clearly that the issues we have with Iran should be solved diplomatically in terms of the nuclear issue,'' Hadley said on NBC's ''Meet the Press.'' Reuters AD VP0620