A video purportedly showing Osama bin Laden was broadcast on Al Jazeera television tonight in which the al-Qaeda leader accuses President Bush of deceiving the American people.
Bin Laden, who is blamed by US authorities for the September 11th attacks, warned of further attacks and said the US administration resembled "corrupt" Arab governments.
In an address just days ahead of the US presidential election, bin Laden said the September 11th attacks would have been less severe if Mr Bush had been alert.
"It never occurred to us that the commander in chief of the country (Bush) would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone ... because he thought listening to a child discussing her goats was more important," bin Laden said, referring to Mr Bush's visit to a school when the attack occurred.
The video shows bin Laden directly admitting for the first time that he carried out the September 11th attacks and promising to outline "the best way to avoid another Manhattan."
It was the first footage of the al-Qaeda leader to surface in more than a year.
The video referred to next week's US presidential election and showed bin Laden in traditional white robes, a turban and a cloak reading from papers and standing in front of a plain, brown cloth background.
"We decided to destroy towers in America," said bin Laden, speaking calmly and forcefully.
He said the attack was carried out because "we are a free people ... and we want to regain the freedom of our nation." He also accused Bush of "misleading" the American people in the years since the 2001 suicide airline hijackings that hit New York's World Trade Centre towers and the Pentagon.
Al-Jazeera, based in Qatar, did not say how it had received the tape. The channel has previously broadcast audio and video tapes from members of al-Qaeda.