US 'must squeeze the heart out of ISIS'

US Vice President Joe Biden said on Monday Washington was going to have to "squeeze the heart out of" the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq to wipe it out.

Vice President Joe Biden speaks to US military personnel at an Air Base in United Arab Emirates.

"We have to squeeze the heart of Daesh in Iraq and Syria so they can't continue to pump the poison in the region and the rest of the world," he said, using an Arab acronym for ISIS.

Biden was speaking to hundreds of American and allied forces inside a hangar at a military base in the United Arab Emirates. "This fight is going to take time, but we are committed to seeing it through until we wipe out this evil - and we will wipe out this evil," Biden said.

Earlier, he ruled out a military solution to end Syria's conflict, and called for a political transition.
"That should be clear to everyone," Biden told Abu Dhabi newspaper The National at the start of his visit to the UAE ahead of travelling to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan.

"So as hard as it is, we have to keep trying to reach a political settlement," he said. Saudi Arabia, which backs the Syrian opposition, and ally the UAE have said they are willing to send ground troops to Syria under US command to battle ISIS.

Biden's comments come as President Bashar Assad's regime and its opponents are due this week to resume UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva as a fragile ceasefire holds in Syria.

The talks are aimed at ending the five-year Syria war that has killed more than 270 000 people, displaced millions and devastated the country.