BAGHDAD, Jan 5: As the six-month countdown to Iraqi self-rule began on Monday, a message from Osama bin Laden called on Arabs to evict US troops from the oil-rich country.

In the tape, which British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said was safe to assume genuine, Osama called on Arabs to rise up against America and force it to retreat from Iraq.

It was released as Iraq entered what British Prime Minister Tony Blair, during a visit to the southern Iraqi city of Basra on Sunday, called a "very critical" period - the six month run-up to the end of coalition control.

The taped message, aired on Al-Jazeera, warned that unless the United States was stopped in Iraq, America would go on to occupy Saudi Arabia and the entire oil-rich Gulf region.

"There can be no dialogue with the occupiers except with weapons," the speaker said. The message also took a swipe at Saddam Hussein. Osama's apparent message comes against a backdrop of insecurity in Iraq, with violence continuing to claim the lives of coalition soldiers and Iraqi civilians nine months since hostilities were declared over.

Blair's top representative here, Jeremy Greenstock, predicted on Sunday that guerillas would conduct spectacular attacks to sabotage the rebuilding effort and the forthcoming handover.

"The opposition are getting more sophisticated in some ways - bigger bombs, more sophisticated remote control devices. It's very dangerous out there. We will go on seeing some big bangs," he said.

A New Year's Eve car bombing of a packed Baghdad restaurant killed five and raised fears of more large-scale attacks on civilians. The insurgency could disrupt several events over the next six months, including regional caucuses tabled for May to select a transitional national assembly that would help steer Iraq's path to independence.

More headaches for post-war Iraq continued in the volatile northern city of Kirkuk, where communal violence last week cost seven lives and separate rocket attacks on Sunday and Monday injured a policeman and a security guard.

Meanwhile in Tikrit, Saddam's hometown, a top US army officer said on Monday he has pleaded for calm, telling locals his troops were not involved in the shooting deaths of four Iraqis.-AFP