"Mr Cheney is coming here to express his solidarity with the people and the government of Pakistan over the earthquake tragedy and he will visit the affected areas," foreign ministry spokesperson Tasnim Aslam told AFP.

A ministry official said Cheney was also due to meet President Pervez Musharraf, an important ally in the US-led "war on terror."

The October 8 earthquake killed more than 73,000 people in Pakistan and 1,300 in India.

The US government is one of the top donors to the relief effort. It has pledged 510 million dollars for quake-hit areas of Pakistan.

Cheney on Monday attend the historic inauguration of Afghanistan's first parliament in more than 30 years and visited US troops stationed there.

He has also travelled to Iraq on this trip and was due to travel later to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

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