Cheney to press Arab allies for help on Iraq

WASHINGTON, May 8 (Reuters) US pleas for help in stemming chaos in Iraq and shared concerns about Iran's rising clout are expected to dominate discussions as Vice President Dick Cheney visits the West Asia to meet with Arab allies.

The White House has said the trip is a follow-up to last week's conference on Iraq in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in which the United States held a top-level contact with Syria and signaled a willingness to do so with Iran.

Cheney, who left today, will visit Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan.

The trip comes amid tensions between the United States and Saudi Arabia because of Riyadh's worries that violence in Iraq will destabilise the region.

''The Saudis are disgusted with what's happening in Iraq,'' said Judith Kipper, a West Asia expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. ''They are concerned with the lack of progress there and the catastrophe that is going on there.'' Cheney is seen within the administration as an important emissary to Arab countries because of ties he developed with leaders there as defense secretary in the 1991 Gulf war and while he headed the oil-services firm Halliburton.

Cheney last visited Riyadh in November and this trip marks his fifth to the kingdom since becoming vice president.

While Cheney has a tendency to keep the substance of his conversations with foreign leaders close to the vest, several of his trips abroad have garnered strong interest because of speculation over whether he will be communicating new initiatives.

''The vice president's travels bring to mind the Smith Barney slogan: When he speaks, people listen,'' said James Lindsay, a former official in the National Security Council in the Clinton administration.

EMERGING TENSION Cheney's last foreign trip, initially billed as a trip to solidify ties with close allies Japan and Australia, ended up including surprise stops in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the vice president pressed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to do more to combat the Taliban and al Qaeda.

A suicide bombing at the Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan killed 14 people while Cheney was there.

Weeks after Cheney returned from the November trip to Saudi Arabia, the New York Times reported that he was told by King Abdullah the Saudis might provide financial backing to Iraqi Sunnis if the United States were to pull out of Iraq.

Further signs of tensions have emerged since then, including remarks in March by Abdullah that the US presence in Iraq was an ''illegitimate foreign occupation.'' Despite his ties to the region, analysts said Cheney was in some respects a curious choice for President George W Bush to send following Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with her Syrian counterpart.

That marked the highest-level contact with Syria in more than two years. Rice has also said she was open to a discussion with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, though that did not happen.

Cheney is known as one of the staunchest proponents in the Bush administration of a long-standing policy of shunning countries like Iran and Syria it considers rogue states.

''It's hard to imagine Dick Cheney embracing that kind of engagement with Iran and Syria,'' said Lindsay, who is now with the University of Texas.

On the other hand, he said Cheney was likely going there to explain the policy, which Lindsay said marked a significant shift though not a sea-change in policy. ''He will also reassure them of the US commitment to stand tough toward Iran,'' he said.

In addition to meeting with leaders in the region, Cheney will meet US military commanders and speak with US troops stationed in the Gulf.

Reuters SBA VP0040