Bin Laden: Obama planted 'hatred seeds'

Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden said US President Barack Obama had planted seeds for "revenge and hatred" towards the United States in the Muslim world.

"Obama and his administration have planted seeds for hatred and revenge against America," the militant leader said in a recording aired by al-Jazeera television on Wednesday.

Bin Laden said Obama was continuing in the steps of his predecessor George W. Bush and told Americans to be prepared for the consequences of the White House's policies.

The Qatar-based station did not give further details in a news flash. Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia at a start of a tour that will also take him to Egypt where he will deliver a speech to Muslims.

On Tuesday, al-Qaeda's deputy leader criticized the upcoming speech, saying it will not change the "bloody messages" the US military is sending Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His bloody messages were received and are still being received by Muslims, and they will not be concealed by public relations campaigns or by farcical visits or elegant words," said Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's No. 2, in a new audio message posted on militant Web sites.

Al-Zawahri said the Egyptian officials who will welcome Obama are US "slaves" and have turned the country into an "international station of torture in America's war on Islam." He was likely referring to suspected Islamic militants who have been captured by the US and sent to Egypt for interrogation, a process known as rendition.

Al-Zawahri urged Egyptians to reject Obama when he makes his speech, calling him "that criminal who came seeking, with deception, to obtain what he failed to achieve in the field after the mujahideen ruined the project of the crusader America in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia."

He said Obama's decision to come to Cairo showed the US had not given up its alliances with dictatorial and corrupt Mideast governments.

"It is a clear message that America does not stand with reform and change and other lying American propaganda, but it stands with the continuation of the existing tyrannical, rotten regimes," said al-Zawahri.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report