Bin Laden slams US on climate, economy in new tirade

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden lectured the US and other industrial nations on climate change, and urged a dollar boycott in response to American "slavery," in a fresh verbal assault broadcast today.

In the message aired on Al-Jazeera television, possibly timed to coincide with the World Economic Forum in Davos, bin Laden said "all industrial nations, mainly the big ones, are responsible for the crisis of global warming."

"Discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury, but a reality," he said in the audio recording whose authenticity could not be immediately verified.

"This is a message to the whole world about those who are causing climate change, whether deliberately or not, and what we should do about that."

The al-Qaeda chief condemned the administration of former US president George W Bush for refusing to sign the Kyoto protocol on cutting carbon emissions.

"Bush... and the Congress before him, rejected this agreement, only to satisfy the big companies," said bin Laden.

"Those (firms) are behind speculation and monopolies, and rises in prices... and they are behind globalisation and its tragic results."

Bin Laden also slammed financial bailouts set up by wealthy countries to help big industry cope with the global financial crisis, saying the programmes helped companies that caused the economic meltdown.