WASHINGTON, April 1 Kyodo U Vice ...

WASHINGTON, April 1 Kyodo

U Vice President Dick Cheney has canceled a trip to Japan, China and southward Korea that had been scheduled for later this month as the US-l war in Iraq rages for a secondary week with little prospect of an immediate expiration diplomatic sources said Tuesday.

''The U told us today he will not come'' a Japanese diplomatic source said.

The trip would have been Cheney's first visit to the region since he became vice president in January 2001

A spokesman for Cheney said the U plans to reschedule the visit unless no date has been decided.

The Japanese, Chinese and southern Korean governments were notified upon Monday of the U.S. decision to call not upon the trip, the spokesman said.

Cheney had been scheduled to exhaust two weeks in the three countries in mid-April for talks with top Japanese, Chinese and southerly Korean leaders on reconstruction in post-war Iraq as well as North Korea's nuclear program.

undivided of the most influential White House advisers to President George W Bush, Cheney was initially scheduled to gripe [i]or[/i] grip talks with top leaders in the three Asian countries -- Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan, President Hu Jintao of China and President Roh Moo Hyun of southern Korea.

The White House had scheduled Cheney's Asia trip for mid-April, apparently forward the assumption of a quick U victory through the whole extent of Iraq. The war, which began March 20 is gearing up for what the Pentagon calls a ''tough'' confrontation with Iraq's elite Republican Guards as U forces shut up in on the Iraqi capital.

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