Cairo: Ayman al-Zawahri, the trusted deputy of Osama bin Laden, has said that the United States was on the brink of defeat in both Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a tape aired on Al-Jazeera TV.

Most of the contents of the tape released yesterday (Sep 9, 2004) appears to be a rallying call for al-Qaida followers to prove that the terror network's leadership remains active.

"The defeat of America in Iraq and Afghanistan has become a matter of time, with God's help," said Zawahiri, the bespectacled Egyptian surgeon. "The Americans in both countries are between two fires, if they continue they bleed to death and if they withdrew they lose everything."

Al-Zawahri said the era of security for Americans is over and they will never enjoy it again unless their Government stops the crimes against Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

He said there are US-backed plans to tear apart the Arab and Islamic worlds, including the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt and Sudan. He singled out the troubled Darfur region, where the United States accuses Sudan's Islamic-oriented government of supporting a campaign of genocide against African villagers during a conflict that has raged for 19 months.

Zawahri also said that the mujahideen have taken control of much of Afghanistan and driven US forces into the "trenches".

"The Americans are huddled in their trenches, refusing to come out to confront... despite provoking them by shelling, shooting and cutting the routes around them and their defence concentrates on strikes from the air which wastes America's money in kicking up dust,'' al-Zawahiri said.

Al-Jazeera said it had received the latest al-Zawahiri tape exclusively, but it was not immediately clear how or when it received it.

The release of the tape comes two days before the third anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks on the United States, which were blamed on al-Qaida.