LANDSDOWNE, Virginia, October 21, 2007 - Vice President Dick Cheney, ratcheting up the Bush administration's warnings to Iran, branded its government Sunday as "a growing obstacle to peace in the Middle East" and declared that United States and its allies "will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

"The vice president's remarks, coming just days after President George W. Bush suggested that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to "World War III," amounted to a one-two punch from the Bush administration.

"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences," Cheney said. He did not specify what those consequences might be, or whether they would include military action.

Cheney made his remarks in a foreign policy speech during a conference on the Middle East sponsored by the Washington Institute, a research organization. During the 25-minute talk, he also took aim at Syria, accusing it of using "bribery and intimidation" to influence coming elections in Lebanon, and he made the case, as he has in the past, for the administration's muscular approach in prosecuting terrorism suspects.

But his most serious comments were aimed at Iran, which he accused of being "the world's most active sponsor of state terrorism."