31 October 2004	Sunday	16 Ramazan 1425

WASHINGTON, Oct 30: The US government asked the government of Qatar to stop Al Jazeera from broadcasting the latest Osama bin Laden tape after receiving a copy of the tape before it aired, a US official said on Friday.

The State Department official voiced dismay that Al Jazeera broadcast the tape, saying it had allowed the architect of the Sept 11 attacks to "propagate his message of hate and violence".

"We received a copy of the tape before it was aired. We asked the government of Qatar not to air it," said the State Department official.

"We are disappointed that they did air it. The issue of Al Jazeera and its unbalanced and inflammatory coverage continues to be an irritant in the bilateral relationship," he added.

The official said he presumed Washington got the tape from the government of Qatar, a US ally that hosts a regional headquarters for the US military's central command, which directed the invasion of Iraq last year.

"We don't think you should be providing a platform for mass murderers to incite terrorists. That's the purpose of (Osama) bin Laden making a video and giving it to Al Jazeera: to propagate his message of hate and violence," he said. "We don't think it serves the cause of peace or good to give him that platform." -Reuters