Osama bin Laden has said that the best way for Muslims to help Palestinians is to support Iraqis fighting against the government and US forces.

In the audiotape, which was the second to be released by the al-Qaeda leader in 24 hours, he also accused Arab leaders of backing the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"The nearest jihad battlefield to support our people in Palestine is the battlefield of Iraq … It should be taken care of and supported," he said the audiotape released on Thursday.

"Palestine cannot be retaken by negotiations and dialogue, but with fire and iron".

"The suffocating siege imposed upon the Gaza Strip came into existence after the support offered by the Arab governments to the US and Zionist entity in Annapolis at the expense of the resistance in Palestine," the voice said.

 

Last November's conference in Annapolis, Maryland, restarted the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

 

 

The tape, whose authenticity could not be immediately verified, came a day following another audio message in which bin Laden warned Europe of a "reckoning" for publishing controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.

 

Addressing the "intelligent ones" in the European Union, the speaker said publishing the "insulting drawings" was a greater crime than Western forces targeting Muslim villages and killing women and children.

 

"The reckoning for it will be more severe," he said. 

 

Bin Laden said in the message that the publication of the cartoons was part of a "new crusade" involving Pope Benedict.

 

The Vatican rejected the accusations.

 

Reverand Federico Lombardi, the chief Vatican spokesman said: "It is natural to think that he would lump the Vatican and the Pope together with all his perceived enemies. But this is not correct."

 

Earlier on Thursday, the White House said that US intelligence chiefs were confident that the voice on the tape released on Wednesday was that of the al-Qaeda.

 

The message coincided with the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war.

 

Bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.