DAR AL ISLAM-IRAQ: AL QUEDA OFFERS A BREAK IN HOSTILITIES SO THE UNITED STATES CAN WITHDRAW FROM IRAQ...

Al-Qaeda offers US troops month's truce to quit Iraq

Insurgents’ leader charges Washington had attempted to open communications.

DUBAI - The head of an Al-Qaeda-dominated group in Iraq offered to give US troops a month to pull out free of attack in an audiotape posted on the Internet Friday and demanded an answer within two weeks.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi also charged that Washington had attempted to open communications through Saudi intermediaries but said he had rebuffed the overture, in the voice recording whose authenticity could not immediately be verified.

"We are offering you the opportunity to withdraw your troops in complete safety and we are expecting your response within two weeks," said the voice purporting to be that of Baghdadi, leader of a self-proclaimed Islamic emirate in western and north-central Iraq that is dominated by Al-Qaeda supporters.

"We appeal to President George W. Bush to seize this historic opportunity which should allow your troops to pull out in safety," it said.

Asked whether the US administration was checking on the authenticity of the tape or if it would answer the offer, Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, declined any comment.

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1) Al-Qaeda offers US troops month's truce to quit Iraq