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Cheney didn't have a permit when he blasted hunt partner

US Vice President Dick Cheney did not have a legal permit to hunt quail when he accidentally shot a 78-year-old hunting partner over the weekend, the White House said on Monday.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department informed Cheney that he lacked a stamp for hunting "upland game birds" in the state when the shooting incident occurred, the vice president's office said in a statement.

Texas authorities said they would issue a warning citation to Cheney but impose no penalty or fine for failing to have the US$7 stamp.

The revelation was sure to aggravate a public relations headache for the White House, already under criticism for waiting a day to disclose the shooting incident.

Cheney shot prominent lawyer Harry Whittington in the neck and chest with birdshot on Saturday as the two were out quail hunting on a Texas ranch.

Whittington's condition was improving and described as "stable" by doctors at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, where he was treated for wounds to his shoulder, upper body, chest and neck.

News of the shooting was first revealed not by the White House but by the owner of the south-Texas ranch, Katharine Armstrong, where the incident took place. Armstrong spoke to the local newspaper, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, which had called her after getting a tip.

President George W. Bush's spokesman Scott McClellan as well as Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride insisted that the delay between the incident and its confirmation by the White House was due to a focus on securing Whittington medical care.

McClellan also said that details about the shooting were trickling in throughout the night and that the White House needed "to get the facts together."

"It was an accident. Unfortunately, these types of hunting accidents do happen from time to time," the spokesman told a frequently contentious press briefing.

Asked why getting Whittington medical attention was incompatible with releasing details of the incident, McClellan said that the vice president's office had "worked to get that information out."

But the Caller-Times reported on Monday that McBride, after confirming the incident around noon on Sunday, had refused to say whether the vice president's office would have disclosed the incident if the daily had not contacted her after getting a tip from an unnamed family member.

"I'm not going to speculate," the daily quoted her as saying.

"The investigation reveals that there was no alcohol, or misconduct involved in the incident," the Kennedy County sheriff's office said in a statement.

The Dallas Morning News reported that Whittington also lacked a hunting stamp.

Gaming officials said they had been issuing oral warnings instead of fines to hunters who had failed to update their licenses under the new rule.
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