DUBAI: Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden slammed Western leaders for taking part in Israel’s 60th birthday celebrations and vowed that Muslims would fight and not give up “one inch of Palestine,” in an audio message on Friday.

“The participation of Western leaders with the Jews in this celebration confirms that the West supports this ugly Jewish occupation of our lands and that they stand in the Israelis’ trench against us,” Bin Laden said in the “message to Western peoples” posted on the Internet.

“We will continue the fight against the Israelis and their allies... and we will not give up one inch of Palestine, God willing, as long as there is one sincere Muslim on this earth,” the message added.

The message, which lasted nearly 10 minutes and was posted on a website used by Islamists, came as US President George W Bush took part in celebrations of Israel’s 60th anniversary, an occasion marked by Palestinians as the “catastrophe” which led to their dispossession.

The audio was titled “A message from Sheikh Osama bin Laden to Western peoples: the causes of the conflict on the 60th anniversary of the creation of the state of Israeli occupation.”