US Vice President Dick Cheney(L) and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf talk during a meeting in Islamabad. Cheney expressed sorrow and solidarity with Pakistan, a key ally in the US 'war on terror,' during a day-long visit to the earthquake-hit country. (Photo: Xinhua/REUTERS)

    WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 (Xinhuanet) -- US Vice President Dick Cheney defended on Tuesday the Bush administration's secret program of eavesdropping on international communications in the United States.

    "I believe in a strong, robust executive authority and I think that the world we live in demands it," Cheney said while traveling by plane from Pakistan to Muscat, local media reported.

    Defending efforts to expand presidential powers, he said it was not "an accident that we haven't been hit in four years."

    Cheney made the remarks during a trip designed to boost the US image abroad and its relations with partners in the war on terror.

    The vice president had visited Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but was cutting short his trip to rush back to Washington on Tuesday to break a possible tie-breaking vote in the Senate on a deficit-reduction bill.

    Cheney was returning to Washington to be "on hand in the Senate to fulfill his constitutional duties as president of the Senate and cast tie-breaking votes, if necessary," his spokesman Steve Schmidt was quoted as saying. Cheney would skip visits to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

    As vice president, it is one of Cheney's constitutional duties to preside over the Senate and to cast votes to break a 50-50 deadlock on bills.

    The deficit-reduction bill, which seeks to cut federal budget deficits by 40 billion US dollars by the end of the decade, was passed by the House early Monday, but it was very likely that a deadlock might appear at the Senate where a vote on it was expected on Wednesday. Enditem