Friday, January 20 2006 10:07 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Cairo (Egypt): In the first audiotape from Osama bin Laden in more than a year, the al-Qaeda leader has warned that his fighters are preparing new attacks in the United States but offers Americans a truce on undefined terms to allow the rebuilding of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The tape, aired on the Arab network Al-Jazeera yesterday (Jan 19,2006), ended the longest silence from bin Laden since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States, which had raised speculation over his fate.

Al-Jazeera said the tape was recorded in December.

Beyond confirming that bin Laden remains alive, the tape could be aimed at projecting an image of strength to al-Qaeda sympathizers, to portray the group as still capable of launching attacks despite blows against it, analysts said.

The CIA has authenticated the voice on the tape as that of bin Laden, an agency official said. The al-Qaeda leader is believed to be hiding in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the tape, bin Laden speaks in a soft voice as he has in previous recordings and presents his message with a combination of threats, vows his followers can fight forever and a tone of reconciliation, insisting he wants to offer a way to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He even recommends a book for Americans to read 'The Rogue State,' apparently a book of the same title by political analyst William Blum.

He says it offers the path to peace that America must apologise to victims of the wars and promise never to 'interfere' in other nations though it was not clear if these were conditions for the truce.