Washington: Rejecting Osama bin Laden's offer of truce with European countries, the United States has said the world leaders including Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would not submit to this kind of "blackmail".

"Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, the Japanese Government and many other Governments have stated clearly that they will not submit to this kind of blackmail," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday (Apr 15, 2004).

Such offers, Boucher said, only "increase our determination to succeed in the fight against terror".

He said that al-Qaeda "has been associated with attacks in any number of countries. It has attacked Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, just about everybody, every religion people in countries that were part of the coalition, not part of the coalition, people in Arab countries and members of Government".

"The indiscriminate nature of the murder and terror conducted by al-Qaeda and its associates gives the lie to any claims of political purpose. It is never time to submit to blackmail."

To a question on the US military's orders of "capture or kill" Iraq's Shiite radical leader Moqtada Sadr, Boucher said, "I suppose one can surrender voluntarily and if you don't, you run the risk of being killed."

He said, "Our vision continues to be that he (Sadr) is under charges from the Iraqi justice system and that he needs to face those charges."