DAVOS, 25 January 2004 — Democratic nations must join together to fight terrorism and the spread of the world’s most dangerous weapons, but if diplomacy fails, they must be prepared to use force, US Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday.

In remarks at the World Economic Forum, Cheney defended the US-led invasion of Iraq, yet struck a conciliatory tone to ease trans-Atlantic relations strained by the war.

“We must act with all urgency this danger demands,” Cheney said.

Ideologies of violence must be confronted at the source by nurturing democracy throughout the Middle East and beyond, Cheney said at the forum held in this Swiss alpine resort. Cooperation among governments and international institutions is even more important today than in the past, he said.

He asked Europe to stand with the United States in supporting democratic reforms in Iran and make a pitch for Turkey’s entrance into the European Union. He also asked for more deployable European troops.

The vice president insisted that if diplomatic efforts were not enough to defeat terrorism and stop the proliferation of weapons, America and other nations must be prepared to use force.

“Direct threats require decisive action,” Cheney told the more than 1,500 world political, corporate and opinion leaders who gathered here in eastern Switzerland to discuss security, economic and other global issues.

A Finnish lawmaker, Eva Biaudet, said she was shocked by the “militarism” of Cheney’s speech and his demand that Europe increase its military capabilities.

“His solution for reaching democracy was armaments, which is not really the European solution,” she said. “He forgot the development part and it worries me.”

In his speech, Cheney said the attacks on America on Sept. 11, 2001 gave all nations “the merest glimpse of the threat that international terrorism poses to us all.” Nurturing democracy, especially in the Middle East, is essential to halting terrorism, he said.

“Democracies do not breed the anger and the radicalism that drag down whole societies or export violence,” he said. “Terrorists do not find fertile recruiting grounds in societies where young people have the right to guide their own destinies and to choose their own leaders.”

Cheney defended the Bush administration’s actions, citing the capture of Saddam, Hussein Afghanistan’s new constitution, Libya’s decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction and an easing of Indian-Pakistani tensions as cause for optimism.

But some in the audience here saw his remarks as a move to play down Bush’s willingness to go it alone on security issues if he cannot muster world support.

Sander Levin, a Democratic US congressman, said the remarks reflected Washington’s acknowledgement that “unilateralism wasn’t working.”