'Bin Laden' blames US for global warming

The al-Qaeda leader issues sporadic tape messages

A new message said to be from al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has blamed global warming on the US and other big industrial nations.

The audio tape, broadcast on al-Jazeera TV, urges a boycott of the US dollar "to free humankind from slavery".

It comes days after another tape said to be from Bin Laden was released, praising the attempted bombing of a US airliner on 25 December.

The authenticity of neither tape has been verified.

But IntelCenter, a US group that monitors Islamist activity, has said the voice on the earlier tape appeared to be that of Bin Laden.

"All industrial nations, mainly the big ones, are responsible for the crisis of global warming," the latest tape says.

"This is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that."

Bush the son, and the [US] Congress before him, rejected this [Kyoto Protocol] agreement only to satisfy the big companies 'Bin Laden' audio tape Is Bin Laden dead or alive? Timeline: Search for Bin Laden

The tape criticises the administration of former US President George W Bush for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on combating climate change.

"Bush the son, and the [US] Congress before him, rejected this agreement only to satisfy the big companies."

The tape also urges a boycott of the US dollar. "I know that there would be huge repercussions for that, but this would be the only way to free humankind from slavery... to America and its companies."

Responding to the earlier audio tape, also broadcast on al-Jazeera, US President Barack Obama said it indicated how weakened Osama Bin Laden had become.

"Bin Laden sending out a tape trying to take credit for a Nigerian student who engaged in a failed bombing attempt is an indication of how weakened he is, because this is not something necessarily directed by him," he said.

A Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, is charged with attempting to blow up a transatlantic US airliner over Detroit on 25 December.

The Yemen-based regional wing of al-Qaeda has said it was behind the attempted attack.