WASHINGTON, Aug 11: Representatives of six Iraqi opposition groups spoke in a video conference with Vice-President Dick Cheney, who is on vacation in his home state of Wyoming, on their plans for establishing a democratic government in Iraq if President Saddam Hussein is toppled from power.

The opposition leaders followed the teleconference with a face-to-face meeting in Washington with Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The opposition leaders said they were encouraged by the “seriousness and commitment” in Washington regarding Iraq’s post- Saddam future.

“There is nobody left in Iraq who believes in Saddam Hussein,” said Sharif Ali bin Hussein of the Constitutional Monarchy Movement. “They only fear his apparatus of terror.”

Iraqi delegate Hamid al-Bayati said opposition groups have secured U.S. support for a conference planned in Europe in the coming months about a possible new Iraqi administration.

President Bush, vacationing in Texas, said earlier on Saturday that he has many options to consider in dealing with Saddam and is continuing talks with Congress and U.S. allies. But he again insisted he has no timetable for deciding on a military strike against Iraq.

“The consultation process is a part of allowing people to fully understand our deep concerns about this man, his regime, and his desire to have weapons of mass destruction,” Bush said.

He described Iraq as an “enemy until proven otherwise,” but said a course of action against Iraq may not come this year.

Speaking after a meeting at the State Department with the undersecretaries of State and Defence, Hamid al-Bayati, the London representative of the Iranian-government who supported Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said, “All Iraqi opposition are united.”