At a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, the country's premier burial ground for its war dead, Biden noted that more than 5,700 Americans have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and more than 40,000 wounded.

"Long after these wars are over and the welcome home parades are finished and the memorials are built and the streets are renamed, our obligation will endure," he said.

"There are over 16,000 young men and women who will require extensive medical care for the rest of their lives, and their life expectancy is over 35 years," he said.

Noting the presence in the audience of Republican leader John Boehner, Biden assured there was bipartisan support for providing for veterans' needs even in a time of mounting budgetary pressures.

The Department of Veterans Affairs was given a 114 billion dollar budget for 2011, the latest in a series of annual increases as war casualties have mounted.

Biden pointed out that the US combat mission in Iraq formally ended in August, although 50,000 US troops remain in the country in training and advisory roles.

President Barack Obama has set a July 2011 deadline for starting to bring home the estimated 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan, but US military leaders have played down expectations of dramatic reductions this year.

"Our soldiers are making measurable progress on the overarching goal to disrupt, dismantle and ultimately defeat Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan," Biden said.

"This mission also comes at great cost in lives and loss of limbs, but not in the loss of spirit or courage," he said.

Biden spoke at a Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington Cemetery where the remains of unknown soldiers from war's past are buried.

The cemetery, the revered resting place of soldiers going back to the US Civil War, has become so full that scandal erupted earlier this year following revelations that record keepers had lost track of thousands of remains.

Also Thursday, retired general Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans' affairs, said the administration was working through a huge spike in disability claims, stemming, in part, from an easing of the requirements to get help for post traumatic stress disorder.

"Last year, in 2009, we pushed out 977,000 cases," the secretary told National Public Radio. "Then we got a million back in."

Shinseki also said the sluggish economy was hurting veterans in particular.

"Over the past 18 months the economic downturn has that impact on the families and homelessness," he said. He noted that the VA had pledged to end homelessness among veterans in five years.

"We are doing fine," he said, "but not doing it fast enough."

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