The terrorist leader’s third statement this year came as President Bush was wrapping up his visit to Israel to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state.

Bin Laden said the fight for the Palestinian cause was the most important factor driving Al Qaeda’s war with the West and fueled 19 Muslims to carry out the suicide attacks against the US on September 11.

“To Western nations . . . this speech is to understand the core reason of the war between our civilization and your civilizations. I mean the Palestinian cause,” said bin Laden in the close to 10 minute audiotape.

“The Palestinian cause is the major issue for my (Islamic) nation. It was an important element in fueling me from the beginning and the 19 others with a great motive to fight for those subjected to injustice and the oppressed,” added bin Laden.

Al Qaeda has been stepping up its attempts to use the Israeli-Arab conflict to rally supporters. Israel has warned of growing al-Qaida activity in Palestinian territory, though the terror network is not believed to have taken a strong role there so far.

The authenticity of the message could not be verified, but it was posted on a Web site commonly used by Al Qaeda and the voice resembled the one in past bin Laden audiotapes. Though it was unknown exactly when the audio was recorded, but it referenced Israel’s 60th anniversary, which began May 8.

IntelCenter, a US group that monitors Al Qaeda message traffic, said the audio message was accompanied by a photo of bin Laden wearing a white robe and turban next to a picture of the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. It was unclear when the photo of bin Laden was taken.