Updated on Friday, June 23, 2006, 00:00 IST

Washington, June 23: US Vice President Dick Cheney warned today that a hasty US retreat from Iraq would have a domino effect, helping terrorists and hurting US allies in the Middle East and from Europe to Asia.

"It is absolutely the worst possible thing we could do at this point," the Vice President told a television news channel in an interview. "In fact, we will have set up the situation in which the al-Qaeda types can win."

Cheney's comments came as the US Senate easily defeated two democratic measures that would set deadlines for withdrawing US troops from Iraq as the unpopular war becomes a key election year issue.

Taking aim at calls for a withdrawal, the Vice President said: "if we were to do that, it would be devastating from the standpoint of the global war on terror."

"It would affect what happens in Afghanistan, it would make it difficult for US to persuade the Iranians to give up their aspirations for nuclear weapons. It would threaten the stability of regimes like Musharraf in Pakistan and the Saudis in Saudi Arabia," said Cheney.

Al-Qaeda has "a plan to establish a caliphate that stretches from Spain all the way around to Indonesia, to kick the Americans out of the middle east, to destroy Israel, to take down most of those regimes in that part of the world," he said.

"They believe they can in fact force us to quit, that ultimately we'll get tired of the fight, that we don't have the stomach for a long, tough battle and that we'll pack it in and go home," said Cheney.

"We can win -- we are winning -- but we've got to stay at it," the Vice President said.

Bureau Report