WASHINGTON, Nov 18: A US intelligence analysis has concluded that an audio recording broadcast last week was almost certainly the voice of Osama bin Laden and the tape was genuine, US officials said on Monday.

The audiotape, broadcast on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television channel, praised attacks that took place last month, showing the speaker was alive as recently as late last month.

It was the hardest evidence that the United States has had since December that Osama was alive.

“Our intelligence experts do believe that the tape is genuine. It cannot be stated with 100 percent certainty. It is clear that the tape was made in the last several weeks,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

“It’s a reminder that we are at war on terrorism. It’s a reminder that we need to continue doing everything we can to go after these terrorist networks and their leaders wherever they are and we will,” McClellan told reporters.

The CIA and National Security Agency, which eavesdrops on communications worldwide, have been analysing the broadcast of the tape, which was of shaky quality because it apparently was recorded over the telephone.

“At this point there is no evidence to indicate, and no reason to believe, that the tape was manufactured or altered,” a US intelligence official said.

The release of the audiotape focused attention on the threat still posed by Al Qaeda, which operates around the world, despite the greater attention being given in Washington in recent months to the threat posed by Iraq.

It appeared to show that despite more than a year of efforts to catch him, the man President George Bush said was wanted “dead or alive” remained on the loose and able to get his fiercely anti-American message out.

“The analysis (of the tape) consisted of comprehensive examination by very experienced linguists and translators as well as highly sophisticated technical reviews of the tape by experts,” the intelligence official said. Intelligence agencies will continue to review the tape recording “and the circumstances surrounding it” for additional clues, he said.—Reuters