'Al-Qaeda tape' warns US

Al-Zawahri is said to be Bin Laden's top aide

An audio tape purported to be from a top al-Qaeda official has warned the United States it will pay a "high price" if any of the men it is holding at Guantanamo Bay are harmed.

The tape was broadcast by al-Arabiya television, which said it was from Ayman al-Zawahri, widely believed to be Osama Bin Laden's right hand man.

The voice warned that if the US sentenced any Muslim detainee to death, Americans would pay the price for it.

The US is holding more than 600 alleged al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters at its Guantanamo base - it said in July that some of them should face trial in a military tribunal.

The Dubai-based station did not say when or how it had obtained the recording.

Attacks 'mastermind'

"What you have suffered until now is only the initial skirmishes," the recording says.

"The real battle has not started yet."

The tape also calls for revenge against Americans, whom the voice dismisses as "neo-crusaders", and threatens nations who "collaborate" with the US.

Activists say the detainees will not receive a fair trial

"We do not expect justice, fairness or compliance with morals, principles or creeds from America," it said.

"It has set to the world an example in contempt for principles, including those in agreements it signed."

It is the first such tape said to be by Ayman al-Zawahri since May, when a recording broadcast by another Arab TV station urged to strike at the embassies and commercial interests of the US, Britain, Australia and Norway.

Ayman al-Zawahri - an Egyptian eye surgeon - is believed by some experts to have been the mastermind behind the 11 September attacks in the US.

He is number two on the US Government's Most Wanted Terrorists list - behind only Osama Bin Laden himself.

He was reportedly last seen in the eastern Afghan town of Khost in October 2001, and US officials believe he is still hiding in the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Controversial system

Many of the detainees have been held at the US base in Cuba for nearly two years, since the end of the US-led war in Afghanistan.

None of them have been charged with any crime.

Detainees come from countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom, and include at least three teenagers.

The US has proposed to try some of the men - initially six - in a controversial system of military tribunals in which defence lawyers are appointed by US officials and the cases are heard by military judges.

They may face the death penalty if convicted.

The UK Government has been assured by Washington that two British citizens who have nominated to face the military tribunal will be spared a death sentence if found guilty.

However families of the detainees and human rights activists argue that the men will not be given a fair trial.