Laden seeks to silence rumours of his demise

"There is nothing really new in the message. The real objective is to say that he is alive, still the leader of al-Qaeda and a main player in world politics," London-based al-Qaeda expert Abdel Bari Atwan told AFP.

In an audiotape broadcast Thursday by the Al-Jazeera satellite television and authenticated by the CIA, the al-Qaeda chief warned of pending attacks in the "heartland" of the United States.

But he also offered a "long-term truce" if US troops were pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan -- a proposal promptly rejected by the White House which said: "We do not negotiate with terrorists."

US Vice President Dick Cheney said Thursday the audiotape was "a ploy" and that "this is not an organisation that is ever going to sit down and sign a truce. I think you have to destroy them. It's the only way to deal with them."

Cheney also said bin Laden's terrorist network had been driven "underground" although he warned al-Qaeda was still lethal.

The new tape marks the first time that bin Laden has been heard from in more than a year, his silence adding to feverish speculation about the fate of the man behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

US intelligence officials believe bin Laden is holed up in a remote mountainous region on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"Bin Laden basically wants to respond to those who have claimed that he was either sick or dead, as for about a year it has been his deputy (Ayman) Al-Zawahiri who had been putting out tapes," said Atwan.