KEY POINTS:
SYDNEY - United States Vice-President Dick Cheney will encounter noisy anti-war protests and growing disquiet over the fate of Australia's lone Guantanamo Bay detainee when he flies into Sydney today on a four-day visit.
Cheney will be the most senior American visitor to Australia since President George W. Bush addressed the joint houses of parliament in Canberra in 2003.
He will be greeted by a big rally outside Sydney's Town Hall, organised by the Stop the War Coalition.
There will be another protest tomorrow outside the five-star Shangri-La Hotel, where the architect-in-chief of the war in Iraq will give a major speech on US-Australian relations.
On Saturday, he will hold talks with Prime Minister John Howard on the US Administration's decision to send a new "surge" of 21,000 combat troops to Iraq.
Cheney, 66, will also meet the leader of the opposition Labor Party, Kevin Rudd, who has pledged to withdraw Australia's 550 combat forces from Iraq should he win the federal election, expected later this year.
The visit comes at an awkward time for Howard, who has slumped to his lowest opinion poll rating in six years, fuelled in part by public opposition towards the war in Iraq and anger over the fate of alleged terrorist David Hicks.
Nicknamed the "Aussie Taleban", the 31-year-old from South Australia was captured with the extremist militia in Afghanistan and has been imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay for five years. Howard's discomfort will only intensify after Tony Blair's announcement yesterday that he will start withdrawing British forces from the war-ravaged country.
The move will inevitably prompt calls from Howard's critics to start doing the same with Australian soldiers.
"For Mr Howard there are risks to this visit because the Bush Administration is unpopular in Australia," said Dr Michael Fullilove, director of the global issues programme at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank.
"Around two-thirds of Australians believe we pay too much attention to America's views when it comes to formulating our own policies."
Howard is expected to tell Cheney that the interminable delays in bringing Hicks to trial have gone on far too long.
But his concerns are likely to have little impact - a mid-February deadline he set for Hicks to be charged has come and gone and formal charges are still weeks or months away.
Under siege at home and with his power waning, Cheney may be grateful to get out of Washington for a few days - his overseas trip also included Japan.
But his reception in Australia may provide scant comfort.
