US VICE-PRESIDENT Dick Cheney, in a telephone interview with Ibrahim Nafie, board chairman and editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram, denied that the US has targeted other Arab states for "regime change". Asked whether Iraq is the first on the American "hit list", Cheney said: "We do not have a track record of that. In the Middle East we have worked to preserve the freedom and sovereignty of regimes, and [adopted a policy] of not interfering with their governments, such as the liberation of Kuwait. In Afghanistan we went in specifically to seek out Al-Qa'eda, which used these territories to launch terrorist attacks against the US."

Regarding the occupation of Iraq, Cheney said: "We don't want to stay on in Iraq after we have accomplished our objectives, one of which is [to provide] relief [for] the suffering of the Iraqi people and [set up] a government which is broadly representative of the people of Iraq."

The full text of the interview will be published in Arabic in the daily Al-Ahram on Friday.