Departing US Vice President Dick Cheney and incoming officeholder Joseph Biden Jr. exchange blows over their constitutional powers.

An incumbent Cheney criticized Biden's knowledge of the US Constitution on Sunday, saying that the vice-president-elect is simply confused.

"He (Biden) also said that all the powers and responsibilities of the executive branch are laid out in article one of the Constitution. Well they are not, article one of the constitution is the one on the legislative branch," Cheney said in an interview with Fox news channel on Sunday.

Biden charges that Cheney altered the constitutional definition of vice presidential responsibilities.

In his first major interview since the election, Biden touched on the issue of Cheney while talking to ABC.

Cheney's recommendations to President Bush, he said, were "not healthy for our foreign policy, not healthy for our national security, and … not… consistent with our Constitution."

Cheney defended his political conduct by saying that he was confident over the White House use of executive powers over the eight past years, adding that ultimately his legacy would be looked upon favorably by historians and pundits alike.

"I would not want to be one of those guys who spends his time reading the polls, people like that shouldn't serve in these jobs," he said.

Cheney has been criticized for his more intimate involvement with the presidency on foreign policy matters and the 'war on terror'.

During the vice presidential debate, Biden called the 67-year-old "the most dangerous vice president we had probably in the American history."

President-elect Barack Obama has vowed to fix Washington politics, especially the cooperation of the vice president.

"If the vice president creates good policies or advocates good policies the president can give him as much or as little power as he wants, but the problem with Cheney is he was advocating bad policies and he was very influential with the president," American defense analyst Ivan Eland commented on the matter in a Press TV interview.

"So we will see what Obama does. He has a more restrained role for the executive branch and Biden's role will probably be more restrained as well," Eland added.

Biden says his primary role as vice president will be to offer the best, sagacious and most insightful advice to the president. He has also promised to restore balance to the office.

Obama and Biden will replace the Bush administration on January 20th.

MT/AA