US Vice President Dick Cheney warned Saturday that the United States would be ready to use military force against any nation supporting and harboring terrorists and would seek to destroy its enemies rather than resorting to containment or deterrent.

Addressing the 2003 graduating class of the US Military Academy at West Point, Cheney said the United States have freed two nations, Afghanistan and Iraq, from oppression of terror, and noted that the battle in Iraq was "a major victory" in the war on terror but the war itself is far from over.

"We cannot allow ourselves to grow complacent, we cannot forget that the terrorists remain determined to kill as many Americans as possible both abroad and here at home, and they are still seeking weapons of mass destruction to use against us," he said.

"With such an enemy, no peace treaty is possible, no policy of containment or deterrent will prove effective, the only way to deal with this threat is to destroy it completely and utterly, and President Bush is absolutely determined to do just that."

Cheney noted that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 on US targets marked a turning point in international relations, with the distinction between terrorists and their sponsors no longer standing.

Citing what he called the "Bush doctrine," he said the United States would consider any nation supporting and harboring terrorists as guilty as the terrorists themselves.

"If there is anyone in the world today who doubts the seriousness of the Bush doctrine, I would urge that person to consider the fate of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein's regime," he said.

He noted that progress made in military technology since the last Gulf War had enabled the US military to win the battle with less time and fewer casualties and he vowed the nation would try every means to keep the US military in that dominating position.

The vice president told the cadets that they would enter the military service at a crucial moment when the nation is still threatened by terrorism and said their service may bring them to dangerous places, where the sight of American uniform will "bring fear to the violent and hope to the oppressed."

The 2003 graduating class has more than 840 cadets, most of them will pursue careers as officers in the US Army.

US police arrest Olympic Park bombing suspect

US police arrested Eric Rudolph, the longtime fugitive charged with the 1996 Olympic Park bombing, in North Carolina early Saturday, Justice Department officials said.

Rudolph was spotted and arrested early Saturday as he was digging a trash bin in the mountains in North Carolina, police sources said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has confirmed his identity through his fingerprint.

Rudolph, a 36-year-old Army veteran, had been on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list and had been offered one million dollars as reward for his capture.

US authorities believe that on July 27, 1996, Rudolph placed a bomb in Atlanta's crowded Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics.

Rudolph was charged in 1998 with that Olympic bombing and three others attacks at a gay nightclub in Atlanta, an office building north of Atlanta in 1997, and at an abortion clinic in Birmingham in 1998.

In all, two people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the attacks, the FBI said.

Rudolph, a Florida native who moved to western North Carolina in 1981, was believed to be a member of Christian Identity, a white supremacist religion that is anti-gay, anti-Semitic and anti-foreigner.

Small jet plane crashes in Italy, killing 2 pilots

Two pilots of an Italian small jet aircraft were killed Sunday when their plane crashed into a warehouse just after taking off from Milan's Linate airport in Italy.

According to eye-witnesses, the plane was clearly in trouble as soon as it took off, unable to gain altitude and flying at a peculiar angle to the ground.

The pilots tried to turn back so as to land again on the runway but apparently lost control of the plane, which flew over a nearby industrial zone and crashed into an empty factory warehouse. It burst into flames immediately.

Experts from the Italian national flight safety agency ANSV said they were exploring the possibility that the accident was caused by an impact with a number of birds.

The airport at Linate was closed immediately so that its firefighters could go to extinguish the blaze, which was only a short distance from the airport perimeter.

The plane, a 20-seater jet used for tourism purposes, was reportedly heading to Genoa, another city of Italy.