London, 24 Oct. (AKI) - The latest audio message allegedly released by Osama bin Laden calling on the Iraqi insurgency to unite and drive out US-led occupiers is "unique," according to London-based al-Quds al-Arabi newspaper editor Abdel Bari Atwan. He called it "possibly the most important message" in al-Qaeda's history.

The audio message attributed to the al-Qaeda leader was released on Islamist websites on Tuesday. In the audiotape broadcast, a voice sounding like bin Laden admitted that mistakes had been made in Iraq and exhorted the fighters to rectify them.

"Some of you have been lax in one duty, which is to unite your ranks," bin Laden said. "Beware of division... The Muslim world is waiting for you to gather under one banner."

He called on tribal leaders and the leaders of armed groups to bring about agreement between the different groups."The interest of the Islamic nation surpasses that of a group," he said.

"It's the most important message because one can see an evolution in bin Laden's thought process and in the organisation of al-Qaeda that was not there previously," said Atwan in an editorial published on Wednesday.

"It is the first time that bin Laden recognises the error committed by the members of his organisation and in particular the excesses committed in Iraq," he wrote.

"For this he asks the Iraqi groups to turn a over a new page and to re-start their collaboration with al-Qaeda."

Atwan believes that the policy used by al-Qaeda in Iraq, of killing Sunnis who do not follow them and the attacks on civilians, has helped the Iraqi government's plan to create Sunni tribal militias to fight al-Qaida aligned groups in al-Anbar and Diyala provinces.

"Launching diatribes against others and imposing a particular theological school of thought on everyone, has allowed al-Qaeda's enemies to gain an advantage.

"In particular, it's helped the Americans to win the trust of certain tribal leaders. In this way, for the Iraqis the enemy has become al-Qaeda and not the occupying forces," said Atwan.

Atwan, is an Arab journalist often interviewed on Arabic satellite TV network Al Jazeera as a terrorism expert.

He stressed how in recent months the routing of al-Qaeda has restored relative calm and the stability to the so-called triangle of death - as the Sunni province of al-Anbar is known. This has won the Americans popularity, even with local tribal leaders, Atwan noted.

According to Atwan, the message released three years ago by Ayman al-Zawahiri and the address by al-Qaeda's late reputed leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to end the war with the Shiites and the death of civilians, went unheeded, as did al-Qaeda directives.

"The latest mistake has been to try and confuse Jihad with the seizure of political power. "Al-Qaeda should not have announced the birth of the Islamic state of Iraq as they have done because in imposing its authority, it has completely alienated the Iraqis," he said.

In doing so, al-Qaeda has made the same mistake as the Islamist Palestinian group Hamas, which won elections, formed a government and then created an "Islamic Emirate of Gaza," Atawn argued.

"Right now Hamas, instead of fighting the Israelis, has had to think about guaranteeing electricity, water, jobs and security and in this way it has lost the trust of its citizens."