Europe rejects purported Bin Laden truce

LONDON -- Key European nations, including Iraq war opponents Germany and France, vigorously rejected a truce offer purportedly from Osama bin Laden Thursday, saying there could be no negotiating with his al Qaeda terrorist network.\nMany saw the audiotaped offer as an attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and its European allies, and one analyst said it might contain a message to militants to hold back on attacks against Europe.\nThe tape, which the CIA said is likely to be an authentic recording of bin Laden, was broadcast on Arab TV stations offering "a truce ... to any country which does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs."\nIn Italy, a nation shocked by the killing of an Italian civilian captured by militants in Iraq, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it was "unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden, everybody understands this."\nFrench President Jacques Chirac, one of the firmest opponents of the Iraq war, was equally blunt -- "No dealings are possible with terrorists."\nSecretary of State Colin Powell told Polish television "this is a time for all of us to be ever more resolute and say to Osama bin Laden, 'No, we will not listen to any of these demands. You are the one who is wrong. You are the one who must be brought to justice'."\nThe tape -- broadcast on the pan-Arab television stations Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya -- is the first attributed to bin Laden since January.\n"I am offering a truce to European countries," the speaker on the tape said. "Its core is our commitment to cease operations against any country which does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs."\nThe message said "the door to a truce is open for three months," but the time frame could be extended. "The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries," the speaker said without elaborating.\nThe CIA said the tape was likely an authentic recording of bin Laden, who is believed to be hiding in the mountains along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.\nCharles Heyman, an analyst at Jane's Defense Weekly, said the tape was "a not very subtle attempt to break whatever coalition there is and to destabilize the situation in Iraq."\nSeveral European governments strongly opposed to the Iraq war quickly rejected the offer. Chirac, speaking in Algeria, said terrorism "is a barbarous act that attacks innocent people."\n"One cannot lean on religion or any other motivation to perpetrate terrorist acts," said Chirac, whose country has troops in Afghanistan but not in Iraq. "No discussion with terrorism."\nThe speaker on the tape appealed to European public opinion, saying the truce offer was "a reconciliation initiative in response to the recent positive developments that have appeared" -- an apparent reference to the defeat of Spain's pro-war government after the March 11 bombings killing 191 people in Madrid, Spain.\nBut Spain's incoming Socialist government -- which promised to pull all 1,300 Spanish troops out of Iraq -- also denounced the taped message.\n"What we want is peace, democracy and freedom," said incoming Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos.\nAnalysts said the tape was an attempt to encourage Europeans to pressure their governments to stop supporting U.S. military operations in Muslim nations.\nIt also could be a message to al Qaeda sympathizers to stop European operations, to avoid galvanizing support for President Bush's war on terrorism, said Montasser el-Zayat, an Egyptian lawyer who defends Islamic radicals.