Citing terrorist attacks like the recent Mumbai bomb blasts US Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday said the war against terror is a global war.

"The war on terror continues. It is a war. It's being fought all around the globe. Just look at the attacks that have already occurred, not only in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania, but in Bali, in Mombassa, in Riyadh, Casablanca, Jakarta, Jerusalem, Bombay (Mumbai), Baghdad and Najaf," he said.

"Make no mistake, the President (George W Bush) is acting to protect us against further attacks, even when that means moving aggressively against would-be attackers," Cheney said in Charleston, West Virginia.

"And the war will continue, perhaps as long as we're in office -- perhaps even longer."

In this global war on terror, said Cheney, US forces are heavily engaged when and where they need to be, but especially today in Afghanistan and Iraq. America will stay there till the 'job is done', he added.

"We will stay in Afghanistan and Iraq to make absolutely certain the job is done before we move on. We will stay until we've wrapped up all the weapons of mass destruction and eliminated all of those who are enemies of the United States."

This war, he said, is not without sacrifice. "Nearly 400 of our troops have already given their lives since the war on terror began, and there will surely be more casualties."

"But remember, we lost some 3,000 Americans here at home on 9/11. We'll be much more secure long-term if we're aggressively going after the terrorists and after the nations and mechanisms that support them, than if we lay back and wait for them to strike us again, here at home," Cheney said.