United Press International

A new audiotape allegedly from fugitive Osama bin Laden accuses the West of waging a crusade against Islam.

The speaker on the recording, which aired Sunday on al-Jazeera television, said the boycott and cutting off of aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian government reaffirmed the West's crusader war on Islam.

The speaker, who also addressed the situations in Iraq and Sudan, called on Muslims to expand their boycott resulting from the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish newspapers, al Jazeera reported.

Al-Jazeera last aired an audiotape by someone claiming to be bin Laden on Jan. 19.

Bin Laden and his organization, al-Qaida, claim responsibility for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States that took the lives of nearly 3,000 men, women and children.

Bin Laden, if he has survived, is believed to be still hiding in the rugged mountains along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.