The vice president will take pains to thank Japan and Australia I’m sure it would pain him to thank anyone for anything. My guess is he’s going to Australia to thank them for letting us build a spy base there.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney will visit Japan and Australia this week to discuss their roles in Iraq and Afghanistan and on common challenges like China’s rise and North Korea’s nuclear programs, officials said.

His trip, which opens in Tokyo Tuesday, comes as the US-led security plan for Baghdad has launched to mixed reviews and as even some White House allies have expressed concerns about a landmark atomic agreement with Pyongyang.

The vice president will take pains to thank Japan and Australia for their help in Iraq and Afghanistan and may urge them to consider ways to beef up their presence in both war-torn countries, a senior US official said Friday.

“We will talk about where there are places where we need to have more done, what other contributions we and other countries can make to the efforts of both those conflicts,” the official told reporters in a pre-trip briefing organized on the condition that he not be named.

In Tokyo, Cheney will aim to dispel any worries about the breakthrough North Korean deal, emphasizing that it is only a good “first step” towards stripping the Stalinist regime of its nuclear weapons programs, he said.

“There’s some growing Japanese anxiety about whether the United States might be going wobbly on North Korea,” according Michael Green, who was US National Security Council director for Asia until late 2005.

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