Bin Laden is back on video to sneer at America

The Al Qaeda leader ended years of speculation over whether he was still alive by issuing a videotape in which he tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.

He also makes his first reference to Gordon Brown and new French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

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Taunting his hunters: Bin Laden addresses Americans in the latest video. The grey beard he displayed in 2004 appears to have been dyed and cut short

Bin Laden says: 'The leaders of the West - especially Bush, Blair, Sarkozy and Brown - still talk about freedom and human rights with a flagrant disregard for the intellects of human beings.'

Although it was yet to be broadcast, the footage was last night in the hands of television networks who released stills. ABC News posted a transcript on its website.

Addressing Americans directly, Bin Laden says: 'I invite you to embrace Islam', adding this will 'achieve your desire to stop the war'.

The tape appears to have been made within the last two months.

At one point, Bin Laden says ' several days ago' the Japanese marked the 62nd anniversary of the Hiroshima bomb, on August 6, 1945.

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The terror leader, sitting at a table dressed in white and cream robes and a white hat, even shows a grasp of U.S. domestic issues. He says Americans are 'reeling under the burdens' of real-estate mortgagesand praises the political activist Noam Chomsky for his writings on mistakes that led to the Iraq war.

Bin Laden also seems to have had something of a makeover. In his last appearance in 2004 his beard was long and greying. In the latest pictures it appears to have been dyed a darker colour and is shorter.

He compares the Iraq war to America's failure in Vietnam, saying: 'You permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you...to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan.'

A doctor who treated Al Qaeda fighters in an Afghan hideout in 2001 has confirmed Bin Laden was there as U.S. forces attacked. Ayman Saeed Abdullah Batarfi told a military panel he carried out amputations in caves at Tora Bora after the attacks but Bin Laden escaped unhurt.