ROME — Vice President Dick Cheney, pushing his effort to persuade Europe to stand with the United States against the spread of weapons of mass destruction, steered clear on Monday of questions back home about whether Iraq had such weapons before the U.S.-led invasion.
In a speech at the Senate Library in the heart of Rome, Cheney beseeched free nations to fight proliferation of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and tried to allay fears of Europeans who worry about a dominant U.S. role in the world.
"Working cooperatively against the dangers of a new era will place demands on us all," Cheney said.
"Using military power, when no alternative remains, will always be the most difficult decision that leaders can take. Yet all of these great responsibilities are central to our future success as free nations."
In his appeal for strong trans-Atlantic relations, Cheney did not mention recent statements by David Kay, the outgoing chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, who has said that he does not believe that deposed President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction when war began.
The U.S. insistence that he secretly hoarded them was a major reason President Bush ordered the attack last March, from which many European leaders — but not Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi — strongly dissented.
During the past few days, Secretary of State Colin Powell has held out the possibility that the weapons weren't there. Cheney didn't answer a reporter's question Monday about whether the prewar intelligence was faulty. A senior administration official on the trip repeated what Cheney told a National Public Radio reporter last week, that the "jury is still out" on whether the intelligence accurately reflected what kind of weapons were in Iraq.
Democratic candidates for president, meanwhile, say Kay's comments reinforce claims the Bush administration exaggerated the threat to the United States from Iraq.
"In all of our actions, the world's democracies must send an unmistakable message: that the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction only invites isolation and carries with it great costs," Cheney said in his speech. "Leaders who abandon the pursuit of those weapons will find an open path to far better relations with governments around the world."
Countering beliefs, mainly by France and Russia, that U.S. power should be countered by alliances such as the European Union, Cheney said: "Our choice is not between a unipolar world and a multipolar world. Our choice is for a just, free and democratic world."
"Unipolar" has become code for overwhelming U.S. power.
Cheney spent all day working to boost Italy's standing in the European community. He thanked it for helping in the war against terrorism and in Iraq, despite widespread public opposition to the Iraq war. Italy did not send combat troops, but after Baghdad fell, about 3,000 Italian troops, law enforcement officers and others were dispatched to help rebuild the nation. A suicide bomber at their barracks killed 19 Italians in November.
On a rainy Monday evening, Cheney sealed the Bush administration's friendship with Berlusconi with a handshake at a palace used by the Italian Foreign Ministry. The two exchanged pleasantries, Cheney calling Berlusconi a "close friend and a source of wise counsel," and Berlusconi noting that Italy was the only other country besides Switzerland that Cheney visited during his five-day trip to Europe.
In the afternoon, before the rain began, Cheney visited the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery and Memorial, about 30 miles south of Rome. There he recognized the 60th anniversary of Allied landings at Nettuno and Anzio on Jan. 22, 1944 — surprise attacks that helped pave the way for the liberation of Rome. About 7,860 American soldiers are buried at the cemetery, some in unmarked graves.
Cheney visited three burial sites at the cemetery where tall Roman pines overlook rows of graves marked by white marble crosses, then laid a wreath at a statue honoring the fallen. The three graves were those of 2nd Lt. Sara Vance, from West Virginia, who died Oct. 22, 1944; 1st Lt. Robert T. Waugh, from Maine, who died May 19, 1944; and 2nd Lt. Donovan A. Astle, from Wyoming, who died Sept. 3, 1943.
In greeting Cheney there, the president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Pier Ferdinando Casini, said, "When we say in Italy, in Europe, there is no room for anti-Americanism, that's our way of saying thank you."