'Al-Jazeera' journalist says sure tape made by bin Laden

Islamabad (Reuters): A journalist who has met Osama bin Laden several times said on Thursday an audio tape message praising recent attacks and warning U.S. allies of death was definitely made by the religious militant.

Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, bureau chief in Pakistan with the al -Jazeera independent Arab television channel that broadcast the tape on Tuesday said the tape was delivered to him by an unidentified man in the Pakistani capital two days ago.

"I am sure I am 100 percent sure it is bin Laden. It is definitely him," Zaidan told Reuters.

U.S. officials said they believed the recording aired on the Qatar-based television channel was probably that of the Saudi-born bin Laden, prime suspect in last year's Sept. 1:1 attacks on the U.S.

On the tape, a speaker praised recent attacks including the Oct. 12 bomb blasts on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, and accused the United States and its allies of harming Muslims and warned: "As you kill, you will be killed."

Zaidan, a Syrian who recently published a book based on several interviews with bin Laden, said he could not identify the man who delivered the tape to him in Islamabad on Tuesday, because he was "half masked".

"He called me and said he wanted to see me... I rushed to the place and he gave it to me. He was half-masked. He told me it was from bin Laden," Zaidan said.

He said the man declined to take any questions. "He was gone in half a minute."

Zaidan declined to say where he had met the courier but said he believed he was the same man who had given another tape from bin Laden about two months ago.

"I can't confirm, but I think he is the same man. He came on foot; he was speaking English."

Gulf officials and Muslim activists said they were convinced the tape carried the voice of bin Laden.

The world's most hunted man has a $25 million reward on his head for allegedly masterminding the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.

The fate of bin Laden, who lived in Afghanistan for years, has remained a mystery. U.S. officials say they would assume he was alive until presented with evidence to the contrary.

The last time U.S. authorities had evidence he was alive was in December 2001.