Europeans cool on US claims tape links al-Qaida to Saddam

OSAMA BIN LADEN, the accused mastermind of the World Trade

The State Department, eager to boost support for a possible war against Iraq, insisted a purported bin Laden audiotape exhorting Muslims to fight the "allies of the devil" was proof Iraq and bin Laden's al-Qaida network were in cahoots.

The US blames the elusive bin Laden for the suicide attacks that killed 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.