26 June 2004	Saturday	07 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

WASHINGTON, June 25: US Vice President Dick Cheney blurted out an expletive at Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont during a heated exchange on the Senate floor, congressional aides said on Thursday.

The incident occurred on Tuesday in a terse discussion between the two that touched on politics, religion and money, with Mr Cheney finally losing temper and yelling obscenities at the senator, the aides said.

"I think he was just having a bad day," Mr Leahy was quoted as saying on CNN, which first reported the incident.

"That doesn't sound like language the vice president would use but there was a frank exchange of views," said Cheney spokesman Kevin Kellems.

According to congressional aides, Mr Leahy said hello to Mr Cheney following the taking of the Senate group photo on the floor of the chamber.

The vice president then ripped into Mr Leahy for the Democratic senator's criticism of alleged profiteering in Iraq by Halliburton, the oil company that Mr Cheney once ran.

Mr Leahy and other Democrats have called for congressional hearings into whether the vice president helped the firm win contracts in Iraq.

During their exchange, Mr Leahy noted that Republicans had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic because they are opposed to some of President George Bush's anti-abortion judges, the aides said. That's when Mr Cheney unloaded with the profanity, aides said.

With the Senate sharply divided, Democrats and Republicans have had numerous partisan battles in recent years on matters from taxes to health care.

"Things have been pretty bad around here," said Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat. "But as far as I know, as far as I'm concerned, this is a new low."

According to Senate rules, profanity is not permitted while the chamber is in session. But when the exchange occurred between Leahy and Cheney, the Senate was not in session so there was technically no foul.-Reuters