Cheney addressed troops at two US bases, Aviano and Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, near Venice, before heading back to Washington at the end of a four-day visit to Europe.

At Aviano, he paid tribute to US soldiers, saying that 50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq owed their new found freedom to them, where just a year before they lived under oppression.

Later, a track-suited Cheney addressed about 1,000 members of the 173rd airborne infantry brigade based at Camp Ederle in Vicenza and decorated several soldiers who were wounded in action in Iraq.

Cheney had earlier held talks with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. He was to return to Washington late Tuesday at the end of a four day visit which took in an address to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland as well as tourism and meetings with leaders in Italy and the Vatican.

WAR.WIRE