'Bin Laden' tape praises Bali and Moscow terror attacks

A tape has been played on a Qatar-based television station, which it is claimed features Osama bin Laden praising terrorist strikes in Bali and Moscow.

The voice on the tape also threatens Western nations which attack Iraq.

It could not be immediately determined if the voice was actually that of bin Laden.

If it is, experts say it would be the clearest indication yet that the leader survived US airstrikes last year and remains alive.

The speaker on the tape referred to the Bali bombing and the killing last month of a US Marine on Failaka Island in Kuwait. He also mentions the bombing of a French oil tanker last month off Yemen and the Chechen hostage taking in Moscow.

He says all the attacks "are only a reaction undertaken by sons who are zealous in the defence of their religion".

He also said the attacks were in response to the Bush government "killing our sons, our old people and children by American planes in Palestine."

In Washington, US intelligence officials are trying to establish whether or not the voice is really bin Laden's.

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 9, 2001.

Another tape of him giving a statement was aired in late December, in which he appeared gaunt and possibly wounded.