Osama bin Laden urged Somalis yesterday to overthrow the country's new president, issuing a statement that clearly outlined al-Qaida's ambitions in a nation long feared to be a haven for the terror network.Bin Laden's 111/2-minute audiotape focused entirely on Somalia, an impoverished country in the Horn of Africa that has been in chaos for nearly two decades, torn apart by warlords and Islamic militants.In January, parliament elected President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, in hopes that he would unify the country's factions.

First line of defense

In the audiotape, bin Laden addressed Somalia's militants."You are the first line of defense for the Islamic world in its south-western part; and your patience and resolve supports your brothers in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Islamic Maghreb, Pakistan and the rest of the fields of jihad," he said.

Experts said the focus on Somalia supports US contentions that al-Qaida aimed to be a force there."I think people who were skeptical that al-Qaida has ambition in Somalia will now have to think twice," Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group think tank in Nairobi, Kenya, told The Associated Press.

Growing ties

US counterterrorism officials have warned of al-Qaida's growing ties with Somalia's powerful al-Shabab militants, who frequently battle government troops and attack African Union peacekeepers in the country. Last year, the US State Department added al-Shabab, which means "the Youth," to its list of foreign terrorist organisations.

"These are people who believe in the idea of permanent jihad and permanent war with the West," Abdi, the ICG analyst, said of al-Shabab. "Any engagement with the West is tantamount to renunciation of the faith."