Osama bin Laden has threatened the European Union with grave punishment over "insulting drawings" of the noble Prophet Muhammad as the Muslim world marked the Prophet's birthday.

He says in an audio internet posting that the "wise men" of the European Union had gone "overboard in your unbelief and freed yourselves of the etiquettes of dispute and fighting and went to the extent of publishing these insulting drawings. This is the greatest misfortune and the most dangerous".

In the recording posted on a website that has previously carried the group's statements, a voice believed to be the al-Qaeda leader's says the cartoons were part of a "crusade" in which the Roman Catholic pope, Benedict XVI, was involved.

He said Europe was intentionally targeting Muslim women and children at the behest of their "unjust ally who is close to departing the White House".

"The response will be what you see and not what you hear and let our mothers bereave us if we do not make victorious our Messenger of God," he goes on to say without specifying what action will be taken.

The message also coincided with the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.

The five minute recording which featured English subtitles could not be independently verified but it bore the logo of al-Qaeda's media wing al-Sahab.

Adam Raisman, a senior analyst at the SITE Institute, a Washington-based group that monitors websites used by al-Qaeda and other groups, said "the tape doesn't give any specific evidence that would allow us to determine when it was recorded".

PHOTO CAPTION

An Image showing Osama bin Laden, the head of Al-Qaeda.

Al-Jazeera