http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1253149,00.html

Drama On The Runway
Updated: 10:14, Sunday February 25, 2007

US Vice President Dick Cheney's plane has suffered a mechanical problem on leaving Sydney.

A White House spokeswoman said that there had been a small electrical problem on the plane but it had posed no safety issues.

Mr Cheney had been visiting Australia as part of a trip to thank Washington's Iraq war allies Japan and Australia.

Officials said the plane made a routine refuelling stop at a Singapore air base as it headed back to the United States.

The problem was fixed while the plane was on the ground.

Officials stressed that Mr Cheney's flight had not been rerouted, despite an earlier assertion by Australian Prime Minister John Howard that the plane was being diverted.

A Reuters photographer at Sydney airport said Air Force 2 had proceeded towards the runway as normal and revved its engines before the engines appeared to decelerate.

A mobile staircase was sent out to the plane but a door in the plane opened and an unidentified figure appeared and waved the stairs off.

The door was then closed and the plane proceeded to the runway and took off.