A voice purported to be Osama bin Laden praising terrorist strikes in Bali and Moscow and threatening nations which attack Iraq was broadcast this evening by satellite television station Al-Jazeera.
The Qatar-based station broadcast an audio tape it claimed contained the voice of the al Qaeda leader.
If authentic, it would be the clearest indication yet that the elusive terrorist mastermind survived US airstrikes last year against his hideouts in Afghanistan.
The speaker on the tape referred to the Bali bombing, the killing last month of a US Marine on Failaka Island in Kuwait, the bombing of a French oil tanker last month off Yemen and the Chechen hostage taking in Moscow, saying all the attacks "are only a reaction undertaken by sons who are zealous in the defence of their religion".
He said the attacks were in response to "what [US President George W] Bush is doing, killing our sons, our old people and children by American planes in Palestine."
In Washington, US intelligence officials are evaluating the tape, US officials confirmed.
The last certain evidence bin Laden was alive was a videotape of him having dinner with some of his deputies, which is believed to have been filmed on November 9th, 2001.
Another tape of him giving a statement aired in late December, in which he appeared gaunt and possibly wounded.
The references in the tape suggested it was filmed in late November or early December, but officials were not fully certain when it was made.
AP