Osama bin Laden appears in new message holding a Kalashnikov

"Even if he has not got the capacity (to launch an attack), he will try to infuse hatred. He is trying to whip up the anguish and anger in the Islamic world and capitalize on that. He is lending his support to that movement and saying, 'We are with you,"' Masood said.

	Osama bin Laden appears in new message holding a Kalashnikov
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Last year, a U.S. national intelligence estimate warned that al-Qaida had been able to regroup in Pakistan's tribal regions after the government hatched peace deals with Taliban militants which later collapsed. slamic extremists have expanded their sway in the past year in the lawless border region with Afghanistan. Taliban militants, some with links to al-Qaida, are blamed for a growing campaign of violence that has spread from the northwest to major cities nationwide, mostly targeting security forces, the AP reports.

The al-Qaida leader's tape appeared to have been recorded since December because bin Laden refers to revelations made that month by the British press that former Prime Minister Tony Blair pushed to halt a fraud investigation against aerospace company BAE Systems PLC in part because he feared it would jeopardize an arms deal with Saudi Arabia.

Bin Laden also criticized the "aggressive policies" of President Bush.

"How it saddens us that you target our villages with your bombing: those modest mud villages which have collapsed onto our women and children," he said, addressing Europeans. "All of this (you do) without right and in conformity with your oppressive ally who - along with his aggressive policies - is about to depart the White House."

On Wednesday, Bush praised Sunni tribal leaders for rising up against al-Qaida in Iraq and said that has led to similar uprising across the country. All that, combined with a strategic influx of U.S. troops last year, has "opened the door to a major victory in the broader war on terror," Bush said.

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