Bin Laden offers a truce to Europeans

A TAPE said to be from Osama Bin Laden in which he offers Europe a truce if it "stops attacking Muslims" was released today.

The tape, which was aired by an Arab television network, does not extend the offer to the United States.

The seven-minute message, which has not yet been authenticated as coming from the al-Qaida leader, also refers to the March 11 bombings in Madrid and September 11, saying the attacks were payment for US and Spanish actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.

The tape emerged as pressure grew on Italian prime minister Silivio Berlusconi following the killing of an Italian hostage, said by his government to be Fabrizio Quattrocchi, in Iraq. Mr Berlusconi vowed to keep Italian troops in the country despite the kidnappers’ warning that they would execute three other hostages if Italy did not withdraw its forces.

Footage of the killing was sent to an Arab TV network. It was the first time in the wave of kidnappings that a group had openly publicised a hostage killing. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Tony Blair was today flying to the US for crisis talks with President George Bush over the spiralling violence.

The Prime Minister was meeting United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York before going on to talks with Mr Bush in Washington tomorrow.

The talks come amid hope of a breakthrough in Najaf. There are indications that Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical cleric who led the latest uprising against coalition forces - had dropped the conditions he set for opening negotiations with the US.

Thousands of coalition troops have laid siege to the city in a bid to capture or kill al-Sadr. But his envoy said he wanted to spare the holy city a bloodbath.

Mr Blair and Mr Bush are facing relentless pressure over the war in Iraq, with questions about their entire military strategy.

Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said today that al-Qaida’s "truce" offer must not be allowed to split the coalition. Whether or not it was the fugitive terror chief, it was a sign that the organisation was rattled, Mr Ancram said. "It is obviously an attempt by al-Qaida, or associates of al-Qaida, to try to drive a wedge between the coalition," he said.

The tape also reportedly criticises US policy for ignoring the "real problem", which is "the occupation of all of Palestine".

And it condemns the recent US-led conflict in Iraq as a money-making scheme for companies building weapons or aiding reconstruction efforts - specifically naming the American firm Halliburton.

The message said: "The door to a truce is open for three months." This time frame, it said, could be extended.

"The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries," it said.

The message also vowed revenge for Israel’s killing of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Several tapes purporting to be by Bin Laden have surfaced since the September 11 attacks. The most recent, broadcast in January by the Arab satellite TV channel al-Jazeera, condemned the occupation in Iraq and attacked Arab nations which supported the war.

The Foreign Office said today there would be "no negotiating with al-Qaida". "The idea of an armistice with a group that defines itself by violence is an absurdity," a spokesman said. "This is a cynical ploy to split Europe and the US. Neither we nor our European partners are going to be intimidated into withdrawing from action against terrorism or to break the transatlantic alliance that has been the cornerstone of our freedom and defence policy for decades."

Meanwhile, Japan’s Iraq hostage crisis intensified today with the apparent kidnapping of two more Japanese as the government failed to make headway over three others abducted last week.

A professional journalist association in Tokyo received an e-mail message saying two Japanese - a freelance journalist and an aid worker - were abducted on their way to the site of an emergency landing by a US military helicopter in Baghdad yesterday.

Three other Japanese civilians were taken hostage in Iraq last week by militants who threatened to kill them unless Japan withdraws its non-combat troops from Iraq.

• Two US soldiers were killed in action in separate attacks in the northern Iraqi cities of Samarra and Mosul in the last 24 hours.

It was not clear whether the deaths had already been included in the Pentagon’s toll, which rose by eight yesterday. According to that toll, at least 93 US soldiers have been killed in combat in Iraq so far in April.