U.S President George W. Bush said on Wednesday that he wanted Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to stay in office during the rest of his presidency, brushing aside calls for the two to resign.

Bush said both Cheney and Rumsfeld were doing "fantastic jobs" and that he "strongly" supported them.

Cheney, whose recent remarks on dunking terror suspects in water caused an uproar in Washington, had got low approval ratings in opinion polls. There had been speculations that he would step down before the end of Bush's second presidency in early 2009.

Rumsfeld faced calls from both Democrats and Republicans to resign over his handling of the Iraq war.

On the Iraq war, Bush said U.S. military commanders had not asked for an increase in troops forces in the country, and that the commanders told him "the troop level they got right now is what they can live with."

Source: Xinhua