ANKARA, Turkey - U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited Turkey, the final stop of a 10-day trip to the Middle East where he said Hamas militants and their backers in Iran and Syria were playing the role of spoiler in regional peace talks.

"There's evidence that Hamas is supported by Iran and Syria, and that they're doing everything they can to torpedo the peace process," Cheney told reporters in Jerusalem before heading to Turkey Monday after two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

Cheney said the United States is concerned about the extent to which arms are being smuggled across the Egyptian border into Gaza, where they are being used by Hamas to attack Israel.

"It's a continuing problem" that has "resulted in the ongoing activity of launching rockets into Israel and threatening the lives of Israelis," he said.

Cheney said Iran and Syria are trying to scuttle the peace process - through Hamas, in the case of Gaza, and in the past it has most likely been through Hezbollah in Lebanon.

"Hezbollah went through the dustup with the Israelis in '06. They've been completely resupplied by the Iranians, oftentimes providing materials through the Syrians and then flying materials into Damascus and then taking them by road into Lebanon," Cheney told ABC News in an interview Monday in Ankara.

He said Hamas, Hezbollah and other militant groups have significant representation in Damascus.

"That's where they operate from," he said. "There's been a very close relationship over the years, obviously, between Iran and Hezbollah. I don't think there's any question but what Iran and Syria have no interest in seeing the peace process succeed. That's a conclusion that I arrived at not just on my own, but also from talking with people in the region."

Cheney, a strong supporter of Israel, spoke with reporters after having breakfast with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the last in a series of meetings to talk about regional issues and nudge Israeli and Palestinian leaders to reach a peace agreement before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009. He said Olmert told him he would do everything he could to try to achieve an agreement this year.

Cheney had traveled to Ramallah on Sunday to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose moderate party controls the West Bank. He said they talked about negotiations under way in Yemen to encourage reconciliation between Abbas' moderate Fatah Party and Hamas, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.

Cheney said he understood the Palestinian leadership had set "preconditions" for agreeing to reconciliation, "including a complete reversal of the Hamas takeover of Gaza."

The U.S. has made clear it will not support working with Hamas unless the group changes its position toward Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli official said Israel would halt peace talks with Abbas if he should reconcile with Hamas.

Iran also figured prominently in Cheney's discussions with foreign leaders in Iraq, Oman, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey.

The United States says Iran and Syria are working to foment trouble in the region by resupplying Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon with a significant inventory of weapons since the summer of 2006, and the weapons have become increasingly sophisticated in terms of range and accuracy. In the U.S. view, Iran and Syria in particular are operating to deny the Lebanese the opportunity to govern themselves.

Cheney did not make public new evidence to document the U.S. claims.

In Ankara on Monday, Cheney also said he was concerned about Iran's nuclear program during a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, according to Turkey's state-run Anatolia news agency.

Erdogan said Iran should work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to ease international fears that the program is designed for making nuclear weapons, Anatolia reported, without citing a source.

Iran says its nuclear program is for the peaceful purpose of generating electricity, and has refused to suspend enrichment, despite a third round of sanctions recently imposed by the U.N. Security Council.

Cheney and Erdogan also discussed Afghanistan, energy security and Turkey's recent eight-day ground incursion into northern Iraq.

The U.S. shares intelligence with Turkey, its NATO ally, in its fight against the Kurdish rebels, who use bases in semiautonomous northern Iraq to launch attacks against Turkey in their drive for autonomy in Turkey's southeast.

Both Turkey and the U.S. label the Kurdish rebel group, know as the PKK, a terrorist organization.

But the U.S. must balance its support for Turkey's action against its allegiance to Iraq. During the incursion, which ended Feb. 29, Bush asked the Turks to "move quickly, achieve their objective and get out" of Iraq.

Cheney also met in Ankara with Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Yasar Buyukanit, chief of the military. The meetings were closed to the media, and no announcements were made afterward.

About 50 protesters chanted anti-U.S. slogans near Turkey's presidential palace during Cheney's meeting with Gul. The demonstrators shouted "Down with America," burned an effigy of Cheney, and carried banners that read "We don't want to send our soldiers to Afghanistan," and "Murderer Cheney."

In Istanbul, where Cheney went later Monday, protesters held banners that read "Cheney leave our country," and "Yankee Go Home!"

Turkey reaffirmed its commitment to Afghanistan, but has refused to send significant numbers of combat troops to the country's violent south. The Turkish leaders offered no new commitments on Monday, a U.S. official said.

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Associated Press Writer Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara contributed to this report.