Al-Qaeda plotting to provoke civil war in Iraq: US

US officials in Baghdad said US forces had seized a computer disc that contained a letter outlining the plan written by Abu Musab Zarqawi, who Washington suspects of links to Ansar al-Islam -- a Muslim militant group operating in Iraq.

"There is clearly a plan on the part of outsiders to come into this country and spark civil war, breed sectarian violence and try to expose fissures in the society," Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt, the top US military spokesman in Iraq, said.

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"We believe the document is credible and we take the threat seriously."

Dan Senor, chief spokesman for Iraq's US governor Paul Bremer, said the 17-page letter proposed attacks on the shrines and leadership of Iraq's Shiite Muslim majority, whom Arab Sunnis and Kurds fear could dominate a future government.

"The document... talks about a strategy of provoking violence targeted at the Shia, the Shia leaders in the hope that it would provoke reprisals against other ethnic groups in the country," he said.

In Washington, Secretary of State Colin Powell said the letter al-Qaeda was under pressure, but had not given up.

"With respect to the letter itself, it's very revealing. They describe the weaknesses they have in their efforts to undercut the coalition's effort," Powell said.

"But at the same time, it shows they haven't given up. They're trying to get more terrorists into Iraq... But they will not succeed."

Iraq's US occupiers have long said they suspect al-Qaeda has played a role in the insurgency against US troops and particularly in attacks on civilian targets in Iraq.

In October, Washington offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Zarqawi.

AFP adds: The German authorities are holding an audio tape apparently recorded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian suspected of being a senior member of al-Qaeda, in which he calls for the destruction of the United States, according to yesterday's edition of German daily Tagesspiegel.

"Oh Allah, destroy the kingdom of (US President George W) Bush, just as you destroyed the kingdom of Caesar," the voice on the 65-minute cassette says.

It accuses certain Arab governments of abandoning the Muslim faith and says: "Oh Allah, kill them one after the other. Spare no one," Tagesspiegel quoted police as saying.

Israel is also criticised on the tape, which the German authorities believed to be authentic, the daily said. It said the German federal police had confirmed they were examining the tape, which appeared to have been recorded during the second half of 2003.