Qaeda number 2 slams Obama in new audio tape

Al-Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman Zawahiri urged Muslims to keep up attacks on the "criminal" United States and criticized U.S. president-elect Barack Obama for promising to back Israel.

Zawahri also warned Obama of failure should he pursue the policies of President George W. Bush, according to an audio tape posted on Islamist websites on Wednesday.

The Egyptian militant also criticized Obama, born to a Muslim Kenyan father, for what he described as turning his back on his Muslim roots.

Zawahri attacked Obama as a "house slave", contrasting him with 1960s black American Muslim leader Malcolm X.

he tape features an old speech by Malcolm X in which he used the terms, referring to house slaves who were considered more docile and on better terms with their masters than the slaves out in the field.

"The Muslim nation received with extreme bitterness your hypocritical...stance towards Israel," he said. "You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand with the enemies of Muslims."

An Obama spokeswoman in Washington said the president-elect's office was not planning to comment.

Homeland Security Department spokeswoman Laura Keehner, asked if the message changed the department's assessment of the threat to the United States, said: "Not that I've seen.

During a visit to Israel in July, Obama assured Israel and its U.S. Jewish supporters he was a friend who would not press for peace concessions that would compromise its security.

Hailing Israel as a "miracle", he promised staunch support and held only a low-profile meeting with Palestinian leaders in the occupied West Bank.

"The Muslim nation received with extreme bitterness your hypocritical...stance towards Israel," he said. "You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand with the enemies of Muslims."

Ayman Zawahiri

No trespassing

"America, the criminal, trespassing crusader, continues to be the same as ever, so we must continue to harm it, in order for it to come to its senses," Zawahri said, addressing Muslims across the world.

"Its criminal, expansionist crusader project in your lands has only been neutralized by the sacrifices of your sons, the mujahideen," he said in an audio recording.

Zawahri urged Islamists fighting U.S. forces and those of the Shiite-led Iraqi government to stay the course, saying that U.S.-led forces were being routed.

"The American people, by electing Obama, declared their anxiety and fear about the future towards which the policy of the likes of Bush was leading them, and so they decided to support someone calling for withdrawal from Iraq."

In a similar message to Islamists fighting Ethiopian and government forces in Somalia, Zawahri urged them not to stop.