Cheney raises concerns about China, North Korea

By Caren Bohan

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday expressed concerns about China's military build-up and also questioned whether North Korea would follow through on its commitments in a recent nuclear deal.

In a speech in Sydney, Cheney also stressed the importance of U.S. forces remaining in Iraq to stop "jihadists" gaining a base from which to spread violence across the Middle East.

Antiwar protests have marked Cheney's visit to Sydney, with demonstrators scuffling with police.

"The notion that free countries can turn our backs on what happens in places like Afghanistan or Iraq or any other possible safe haven for terrorists is an option that we simply cannot indulge," Cheney said in his speech.

"If our coalition withdrew before Iraqis could defend themselves, radical factions would battle for dominance of the country," he told the Australian-American Leadership dialogue.

Cheney arrived in Australia after talks in Tokyo with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in which China's military rise and its growing clout were high on the agenda.

In Sydney, Cheney praised China's role in six-party talks that led to an agreement under which North Korea agreed to disable its main plutonium-producing nuclear complex in return for heavy fuel oil.

But Cheney raised concerns over China's military build-up.

"Last month's anti-satellite tests, China's continued fast-paced military build up, are less constructive and are not consistent with China's stated goal of a 'peaceful rise'."

Cheney echoed Bush in saying the North Korea deal was a step toward disarmament but also raised concern about whether Pyongyang would follow through.

"In light of North Korea's missile test last July, its nuclear test in October and its record of proliferation and human rights abuses, the regime in Pyongyang has much to prove, yet this agreement represents the first hopeful step toward a better future for the North Korean people," he said.

Cheney is known for his hawkish views and the speech was his first open acknowledgement of caution over the Korea deal.

"On North Korea, I thought he was properly skeptical," said U.S. analyst Michael Fullilove, from Austalia's foreign affairs think tank The Lowy Institute.

Analyst Ron Huisken, from the Australian National University's Strategic and Defense Studies Center, said Cheney's China comments may have been aimed at showing Japan it was alert to concerns about China's buildup.

"I don't recall Cheney ever making a major statement raising a dark cloud or a hesitation of a query on China," he said.