Around the world

CAIRO, Egypt — The head of an umbrella group for Iraqi insurgents says the U.S. killing of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq was a "great loss,” but one that will strengthen the militants’ determination, according to an audio tape broadcast by Al-Jazeera on Friday.

The pan-Arab satellite channel said the tape bears the voice of Abu Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, the head of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, which groups five Iraqi insurgent organizations including al-Qaida in Iraq.

"This is a message to the enemies of God, the crusaders, the rejectionists and the renegades,” the voice says, referring respectively the US-led forces, the Shiites, and the Sunnis in the Iraqi government.

"The martyrdom of the leader will not change the arena of confrontation. Rather, it will become fiercer and stronger,” the speaker says.

U.S. worried about

possible North Korean

long-range missile test

WASHINGTON — North Korea is accelerating preparations for testing a missile that has the potential to strike the United States, a U.S. government official said Friday.

A test of the Taepodong-2 long-range missile may be imminent, the official said.

The official agreed to speak but only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

The official said the Bush administration is very concerned about activities that point toward a test, but declined to elaborate.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that any missile launch by the North Koreans would be a provocation and would violate their 1999 commitment not to carry out such tests.

He had no comment on reports that a North Korea test launch may be in the offing.

Japanese and South Korean officials also have expressed concern in recent days about the reported North Korean missile launch activities.

Kyodo News agency in Japan reported that an additional rocket section had arrived at a North Korean launch site within the past two days.

In Tokyo, the Japanese government responded to news reports about a possible test by warning that any such step would jeopardize the country’s security.

The reports of a possible launch come after a prolonged hiatus in six-party nuclear disarmament talks designed to create a Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons.

Persistent efforts by the United States and other members of the group to persuade North Korea to resume the discussions have not been successful. There have been no discussions since last November.

North Korea is demanding that the United States revoke sanctions that Washington imposed several months ago in response to alleged North Korean counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and other currency violations.

McCormack reaffirmed on Friday that the United State strongly supports a resumption of the six-party talks.<