Bin Laden says West waging "crusader war" on Islam-TV

DUBAI, Apr 23 (Reuters) Al Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden said Western efforts to isolate the Palestinian Hamas government and the Darfur crisis in Sudan were examples of the West's ''crusader war'' against Islam, according to an audiotape aired today.

''This is a crusader-Zionist war,'' said the speaker who sounded like the Saudi-born militant in the tape aired on Al Jazeera television.

''And they (Western leaders) do not want a truce unless it is from our side only ... they insist on continuing their crusader campaign against our nation and to loot our wealth,'' bin Laden said.

In an audiotape issued in January bin Laden said al Qaeda was preparing attacks in the United States but the group was open to a conditional truce with Americans.

REUTERS SRS PM1812