WASHINGTON: US VICE-President Dick Cheney has clashed with his successor over the proper role of his office, suggesting Mr Joseph Biden might 'diminish' the importance of the office.

Mr Cheney's pointed remarks contrasted with the cordial public tone that has prevailed so far as President George W. Bush prepares to hand over to President-elect Barack Obama on Jan 20.

The outgoing Vice-President has rejected criticism from Vice-President-elect Biden who had said during the election campaign that Mr Cheney had overstepped his constitutional role.

'If he wants to diminish the office of the Vice-President, that's obviously his call,' Mr Cheney said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

'President-elect Obama will decide what he wants in a vice- president and apparently, from the way they're talking about it, he does not expect him to have as consequential a role as I have had during my time.'

During a campaign debate, Mr Biden had called Mr Cheney 'probably the most dangerous Vice-President we've had in American history' and said he did not understand the legal status of the office under the Constitution.

But Mr Cheney pointedly criticised Mr Biden's knowledge, saying that while his successor had taught constitutional law in Delaware and for years served on the Judiciary Committee, 'he can't keep straight which article of the Constitution provides for the legislature and which provides for the executive', a reference to a comment by Mr Biden that Article I of the Constitution lays out the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch. In fact, that article primarily deals with the legislative branch.

Moreover, while President Bush has struck a decidedly reflective tone in the interviews he has granted as his presidency winds down, Mr Cheney has remained unyielding.

He defended controversial interrogation methods in the US 'war on terror', while acknowledging he was not sure if Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was still alive.

'Given the kind of conflict we're faced with today, we find ourselves in a situation where I believe you need strong executive leadership. What we did in this administration is to exert that kind of authority,' Mr Cheney said.

He said the administration had acted appropriately in its 'war on terror' after the Sept 11, 2001 attacks and had followed legal precedent, citing previous presidents, including Abraham Lincoln during the US civil war and Franklin Roosevelt in World War II.

At a time of war, he said, the president's responsibilities include collecting intelligence, 'and therefore I think you're fully justified in setting up a terror surveillance programme to be able to intercept the communications of people who are communicating with terrorists outside the United States'.

The Bush administration has been sharply criticised at home and abroad over its treatment of terror suspects, including the use of harsh interrogation techniques condemned as torture, detaining suspects without charge at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba and running unwarranted domestic surveillance programmes.

Mr Cheney acknowledged that he had opposed Mr Bush's decision to fire former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2006.

'I did disagree with the decision,' he said. 'The President doesn't always take my advice.'

Asked if he had advice for Mr Biden, Mr Cheney said: 'Well, he hasn't asked for any, so I won't go beyond where I've been.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

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WASHINGTON: - Mr Joseph Biden has given a critical assessment of outgoing Vice-President Dick Cheney while giving his own view of the scope of power of the office.

Vice President-elect Biden described it as something like counsellor-in-chief with no single policy focus.

The sharp edge of some of his comments against Mr Cheney might not be terribly surprising; during the election campaign, Mr Biden had criticised Mr Cheney as 'probably the most dangerous Vice-President we've had in American history'.

In his first extensive interview since the election, Mr Biden said he believed that the recommendations Mr Cheney had given President George W. Bush had 'been not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and it has not been consistent with our Constitution'.

'His notion of a unitary executive, meaning that in time of war, essentially all power goes to the executive, I think is dead wrong' and had tended 'to weaken our standing in world and weaken our security,' he told ABC News on Sunday.

Amid growing curiosity over how Mr Biden will balance a vow to scale back the powers of his office against a desire to play a vital and central role, he said that President-elect Barack Obama had asked him to oversee a taskforce dedicated to strengthening the middle class.

'We'll look at everything from college affordability to after- school programmes,' Mr Biden said .

But he also said he had received a commitment from Mr Obama, during a long conversation before the election, to include him in formulating every decision of import.

'I said, 'I want a commitment from you that in every important decision you'll make, every critical decision, economic and political as well as foreign policy, I'll get to be in the room',' Mr Biden said.

And indeed, he said, that with every Cabinet appointment Mr Obama had decided on, 'I've been in the room'.

Mr Biden said his role would be 'to give the President of the United States the best, sagest, most accurate, most insightful advice and recommendations' he can offer.

He said the information that he has been given in daily intelligence briefings had only strengthened his belief that Mr Bush and Mr Cheney had mishandled counter-terrorism policy.

Mr Biden said he was still committed to closing the US prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and that he remained critical of the Bush administration's surveillance and detention programmes, saying, 'we have created, not dissuaded more terrorists, as a consequence of this policy'.

He sidestepped judgment on whether members of the Bush administration should face legal action over detainee abuse either at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq or the military prison at Guantanamo. That should be up to the Justice Department, he said.

And while Mr Cheney has suggested that Mr Biden's views might change once he learns the breadth and urgency of threats against the country, Mr Biden took exception. He said that as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, he had been one of the eight congressional leaders included in the most sensitive intelligence briefings, and that since the election, he had received presidential-level briefings.

'I have learned nothing thus far that would change my view.'

NEW YORK TIMES, ASSOCIATED PRESS