Sioux City (Iowa), June 26 (Reuters): US vice-president Dick Cheney said today he had no regrets about a bitter exchange with Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy in which the vice-president used an obscenity.

Cheney, on a campaign swing through Iowa and Michigan, hurled the “F-word” at Leahy during a conversation between the two on Tuesday, according to congressional aides. Asked if he cursed the Vermont senator, Cheney told the Fox News programme, the Cavuto Report: “Probably.”

But he said “No” when asked whether he regretted it. “I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it,” Cheney said. According to congressional aides, Leahy said hello to Cheney after a photo session on the senate floor.

Cheney, who is president of the Senate, then ripped into Leahy for the Democratic senator’s criticism this week of alleged war profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil services company that Cheney once ran.

Leahy noted Republicans had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they are opposed to some of George W. Bush’s anti-abortion judges.