'Bin Laden message on Iraq expected'

The head of the Al-Qaeda network is expected to release a taped message on Iraq, a group monitoring extremist online forums said.

The head of the Al-Qaeda network Osama bin Laden is expected to release a taped message on Iraq, a group monitoring extremist online forums said.

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The 56-minute tape by the hunted militant is addressed to Iraq and an extremist organisation based there, the Islamic state of Iraq, said the US-based SITE monitoring institute on Thursday, citing announcements on "jihadist forums."

It said the release was "impending" but did not say whether the message was an audio or video tape.

The message is titled "The Way to Contain the Conspiracies" and is produced by Al-Qaeda's "multimedia arm" As-Sahab, it added.

Bin Laden has claimed responsibility for the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, which killed nearly 3,000 people and prompted the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Despite a massive manhunt and a $25-million bounty on his head, he has evaded capture and has regularly taunted the United States and its allies through warnings issued on video and audio cassettes.

He was last heard from at the end of November in a message aired on the Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera, warning Europeans to break with the United States and leave Afghanistan.