Cheney: Iraq crackdown yielding results

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that the US troop "surge" in Iraq had improved security there, and defended the decision by lawmakers in Baghdad to take a one-month August vacation.

"It's better than taking two months off, which was their original plan," he told CNN television amid deep US worries about the pace of Iraqi reconciliation efforts. "Obviously we're eager to have them complete their work."

His comments came after a formal report on US-led efforts in Iraq found unsatisfactory progress towards passing key legislation, like a law to govern oil revenue sharing, aimed at tamping down sectarian strife.

Cheney also said that the March 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq was the right decision and predicted that a September report on the US-led security crackdown would reveal "significant progress" towards US aims.

"I think it's going to show that we will have made significant progress," Cheney said, referring to the formal assessment from the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and US Ambassador Ryan Crocker.

"The reports I'm hearing from people whose views I respect indicate that indeed the Petraeus plan is in fact producing results," the vice president said.

Asked whether he believed that the "surge" would yield such results by the time he and US President George W. Bush leave office in January 2009, Cheney replied: "I believe so."

Asked whether the decision to invade Iraq was the right one, despite the failure to find the weapons of mass destruction at the center of the public case for war, Cheney replied: "Yes, sir."

"The decisions we've made with respect to Iraq and Afghanistan have been absolutely the sound ones in terms of the overall strategy," he said, in a reference to himself and to US President George W. Bush.

"We walk out of here on January 20th of '09, and I think we'll be able to hold our heads high knowing we did the best we could for the country. That's what counts more than anything else," he said.