WASHINGTON - Fugitive terrorist leader Osama bin Laden renewed his charge that the West is waging a crusade against Islam by intervening in Sudan and boycotting the new Palestinian-elected Hamas government, in a new tape aired on Sunday. The Al Qaeda terrorist network leader’s voice was heard on the tape, broadcast by the Arabic news channel Al Jazeera, claiming that the West’s “boycott of Hamas confirmed that it is a crusade Zionist war against Muslims.”

After an analysis of the recording, United States intelligence officials “believe it is authentic,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan said later Sunday.

The United States and European Union recently halted aid to the Palestinian Authority with the takeover by Islamic militant movement Hamas, which won a resounding victory in January in Palestinian elections. Western governments, while continuing some direct aid to the Palestinian people, have demanded that Hamas renounce violence and recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Bin Laden criticized both US support for the autonomy of southern Sudan and the Khartoum government’s signing of a peace treaty with southern rebels.

“(Sudanese President Omar) Beshir and (US President George W) Bush should know that this treaty is not worth the value of the ink in which it was written and for us, the treaty is not at all binding,” bin Laden said.

He accused the US of exploiting disputes between the tribes in Sudan’s western province of Darfur to fuel a conflict as a pretext for sending what he called a “crusade army” to seize Sudanese oil resources.

“I call on the mujahedin in Sudan and its neighbours, especially the Arab peninsula, to prepare all they need to engage in a long-term war against the crusade thieves in western Sudan,” bin Laden said.

It was the first appearance of bin Laden in the Arab media since Al Jazeera aired a voice recording on January 19, in which the Al Qaeda leader offered the West an armistice.

In Sunday’s recording, bin Laden said that the rejection by the West of his armistice was proof that the West opposed dialogue. The West was insisting on continuing a crusade war against “our nation.”

“The politicians of the West do not want dialogue except for the sake of dialogue to drag us on, for them to gain more time. They want an armistice that is observed only by us,” bin Laden said.

The US military says it has no information on the exact whereabouts of bin Laden, but suspects he has been hiding along the rugged border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan, since the Al Qaeda-allied Afghan Taleban regime was ousted by a US-led coalition in late 2001.

“The Al Qaeda leadership is on the run and under a lot of pressure,” Bush spokesman McClellan said. “We are continuing to take the fight to the enemy abroad and making it difficult for them to plan and plot against America.”