WASHINGTON, Oct 4 (AFP) - Profiles of Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and Democratic challenger Senator John Edwards who will take part in a debate Tuesday by vice-presidential candidates ahead of the November 2 US election:

DICK CHENEY
Demonised by Democrats, Dick Cheney is widely seen as the eminence grise of President George W. Bush and is one of the most powerful vice presidents in American political history.
Cheney was sent into a White House bunker after the September 11, 2001 attacks and has kept a low profile for much of the Bush administration. He has been one of the hardline defenders of the Iran invasion and mired in controversy over past links to Halliburton, the oil services giant that has huge US military contracts.
But when Cheney speaks, the sparks often fly and his comments nearly always make news.
Under pressure after months of Democratic criticism over Halliburton, a company he ran until joining the Bush campaign in 2000, Cheney used the F-word in June against Democratic senator Patrick Leahy.
He annoyed the Democratic campaign last month by strongly hinting that the United States would face a bigger threat of a new September 11-style attack if voters choose Democrat John Kerry for president on November 2.
"Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually," Cheney said of himself in a rare interview with American newspapers in January.
Cheney has, however, also shown an ability to shock even American conservatives, coming out in favour of gay marriages after years of opposition. His eldest daughter is a lesbian.
Cheney has decades of experience in Washington power politics. He was the defence secretary during the 1991 Gulf War and a chief of staff for President Gerald Ford, a member of the House of Representatives. Cheney was head of a committee looking for a vice presidential candidate for Bush. The committee decided he would be the best candidate.
Despite his fragile health after several heart attacks, disquiet about the Halliburton controversy and Democrat attacks on the way he avoided Vietnam war service, Bush has insisted that Cheney remains his trusted number two.
"I admit it, he's not the prettiest face in the race," the president has said of Cheney. "I didn't pick him for his looks. I picked him for his judgment, his experience, his ability to get the job done."

JOHN EDWARDS
Youthful, optimistic, but with relatively little political experience, John Edwards, the Democratic contender for the vice presidency, is almost completely the opposite to Cheney.
Edwards earned a fortune as a personal injury trial lawyer -- an area in which the Bush administration wants to clamp down on huge awards made. He turned to politics after the death of his 16-year-old son winning a senate seat for North Carolina at his first attempt six years ago.
Turning on his southern charm, Edwards, 51, gave John Kerry a run for his money in the Democratic nomination race. He was always the favourite to become Kerry's running-mate, adding a touch of glamour and fresh air to Kerry's stiff persona.
Edwards plays up his humble origins as the son of a mill worker and has built a reputation as a champion of the poor.
"We still live in two different Americas -- one for people who have lived the American Dream and don't have to worry, and another for most Americans who work hard and still struggle to make ends meet," he says in speeches that highlight the lost jobs and struggle for health care that many Americans go through.
"It doesn't have to be that way," he tells rallies.
Some people see Edwards as future presidential candidate material. At the moment age goes against him and he has played the role of a loyal aide to Kerry, sticking to raising the campaign profile in small towns while Kerry takes centre stage in the battle against Bush.
Edwards was born June 10, 1953 in South Carolina and raised in neighbouring North Carolina, the state he represents in the US Senate.
At 11, he wrote a school essay "Why I Want to Be a Lawyer." His mission: to rise from his modest origins and "protect innocent people from blind justice the best I can."
He proved a brilliant attorney, representing parents who lost their children in botched hospital deliveries, and children who lost their parents in car wrecks.
Edwards once convinced a jury to award 25 million dollars to a nine-year-old girl who was severely injured in a badly built swimming pool.
Success came swiftly in politics. He dispatched an incumbent Republican senator in the 1998 election.