CAIRO, Feb 20: Osama bin Laden has vowed never to be captured alive and said the US military has become as “barbaric” as Saddam Hussin in an audiotape posted on a website used by Muslim extremists.

The tape was an expanded version of the same audio tape first broadcast Jan 19 on Al Jazeera television channel, in which the top Al Qaeda leader had offered the United States a long-term truce but also said his terror network would soon launch a fresh attack on American soil.

Muslim militant web forums often re-post messages from Al Qaeda leaders to ensure their sympathizers could see them. US intelligence officials confirmed that the voice on the Jan 19 tape was Mr Osama’s, making it his first message in more than a year.

“I have sworn to only live free. Even if I find bitter the taste of death, I don’t want to die humiliated or deceived,” Mr Osama said in the 11 minute 26 second recording.

Comparing the American military behaviour in Iraq to that of Saddam regime, the speaker said: “The jihad is ongoing despite all oppressive measures adopted by the US Army and its agents (and it has reached) a point where there is no difference between this criminality and Saddam’s criminality ... Despite all barbaric methods, they have not broken the resistance’s fierceness.”

Mr Osama also denied Bush administration’s assertions that it was better to fight terrorists in Iraq than on US soil.

“The reality shows that the war against America and its allies has not been limited to Iraq as he (Bush) claims. Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (our) energies,” he said.

“‘The Mujahideen … have managed repeatedly to penetrate all security measures adopted by the unjust allied countries.

The proof of that is the explosions you have seen in the capitals of the European nations who are in this aggressive coalition,” he said.

This statement was included in the excerpts aired by the Al Jazeera channel in January. — AP