11:02pm UK, Wednesday July 28, 2004

Muslim militants claiming links with al Qaeda have vowed a "bloody war on Europe" after a truce offered by Osama bin Laden expired earlier this month.      

They also said that Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would be their first target for attack.

New threat of attacks such as March 11 in Madrid

In a statement posted on an Islamist website, the group said:   

"We will shake the cities of Europe and we will start with you Berlusconi, and we will make it bloody until you return to the correct path.   

"Wait for us Berlusconi and your other allies as well, wait for our promise which we have revealed to you and are now revealing to Europe."   

The statement, signed by Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades also makes a threat to Europe in general.   

It states: "Today, we have declared a bloody war on you and we will not stop raids against you until you return to the correct path."   

"After the truce determined by our sheik Osama bin Laden ended, and after you have not returned to the correct path, we declare a war in your faces and in the face of your silent people whose silence proves their support to you," it added.     

The authenticity of the statement could not be immediately verified.     

The group had warned in an internet statement earlier this month it would launch new attacks on Europe once the truce, which expired in mid-July, ended.     

Al Qaeda leader bin Laden, in an audiotape on April 15, gave European states three months to pull troops out of Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries or face new attacks like the     

Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people on March 11.