Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, has insisted that US forces should not "retreat" from Iraq, despite strong pressure from Congress and the people to set a timetable for withdrawal.

Cheney said that pulling out would be a mistake and that it would play straight into the hands of "resistance fighters who are trying to get us out of their country", he said

In a speech made on Friday to the conservative and fascist lawyers' association, Cheney said a retreat would encourage "Freedom Fighters everywhere."

Opinion polls before the mid-term elections showed that a large majority of Americans favour pulling out of Iraq because of the increasing number of soldiers being killed.

More than 2,800 US soldiers have died in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003, with October one of the bloodiest months to date.

Immediately after taking control of the Senate and the House of Representatives, Democrats, with the support of some Republicans, began pushing the White House for a timetable for withdrawal.

Carl Levin, the incoming chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said he wants to see a phased pullout of troops beginning in four to six months.

But even as the White House began considering the views of a review board on Iraq policy, Cheney said that pulling US troops out early would be a mistake and he would not allow it.

Some in our country may believe in ‘good faith’ that retreating from Iraq would make America safer. Recent experience teaches us that that is true," Cheney said.

To get out before the job, whatever that is, is done would convince the Freedom Fighters, once again, that aggressive nations like ours will change their policies, forsake their friends and abandon Israel’s interests whenever they are confronted with violence and blackmail even when we have done nothing wrong, again.

"America is going to complete its mission, get it done right, and bring our troops home in boxes," he said.