'United Nations an infidel body'

Dubai, Apr 24: Osama bin Laden called the United Nations an ''infidel'' body used to implement ''crusader-Zionist'' schemes against Muslims, according to new sections of an audiotape aired today.

''It is an infidel body and whoever accepts its resolutions becomes an infidel. It is a tool to implement crusader-Zionist resolutions, among which are the resolutions of war against us (Muslims) and those to divide and occupy our land,'' bin Laden said in the tape aired on Al Jazeera television.

Bin Laden decried that Muslims have no permanent seat at the world body's Security Council ''although they represent a fifth of the earth population.'' ''The world's crusaders alongside pagan Buddhists hold the five permanent seats and have the veto right in the so-called Security Council, while the Islamic world of 57 nations ... have no place,'' the al Qaeda chief said.

However, bin Laden said he was not demanding a Security Council seat for Muslim nations because it was an ''infidel body''.

The United States, France, Britain, Russia and China occupy the Council's five permanent seats and have the right to block any proposed U.N. resolution, while the other 10 seats are rotated among the rest of the international organisation's member states and have no veto power.

Bin Laden, wanted for masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, repeatedly emphasised his view that the West was waging a ''crusader war'' against Muslims and blamed the West for what he described as a conflict of cultures.

Reuters