LONDON - A purported truce offer from Osama bin Laden met with flat rejections from key European nations, including Iraq war opponents France and Germany, and condemnations of his al-Qaida terrorist network.

European leaders said there could be no negotiating with bin Laden and the audiotaped truce offer was widely seen as an attempt to drive a wedge between the United States and its European allies by exploiting their differences over Iraq.

The offer, broadcast Thursday on Arab TV stations, suggested a subtle shift in strategy by the al-Qaida chief, who in the past has directed his bloody campaign against the West in general.

Security analyst Kai Hirschmann in Germany said the message should not be taken seriously.

"It was all about driving a wedge between governments and people inside Europe," said Hirschmann, deputy head of the Institute on Terrorism Research and Security Policy.

"It's like a bank robber saying, 'Give me a million euros and I won't rob any more banks' - it's laughable," he said.

One British newspaper suggested the proposal indicated that bin Laden may be in a weakened position.

"Terrorist leaders traditionally resort to this either when they have lost control of their own forces, or when they believe that they are losing," The Daily Telegraph wrote in its editorial today.

CIA analysts said the tape was likely an authentic recording of the al-Qaida chief.

The recording was apparently made in recent weeks, the CIA said, because it includes a reference to Israel's killing on March 22 of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

It offered "a truce ... to any country which does not carry out an onslaught against Muslims or interfere in their affairs."

Russia also called the tape a bid to pit the opponents of terrorism against one another.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said the offer reflected "simply a desire to create a schism in the anti-terrorist coalition, in which Russia participates actively," the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia opposed the U.S.-led war in Iraq but supports the war against terrorism and casts its war against militant separatists in the Chechnya region as part of the international struggle against global terrorism.

French President Jacques Chirac, one of the firmest opponents of the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein, rejected the truce offer. "No dealings are possible with terrorists," he said.

Germany, which is now helping train Iraqi police, was equally clear. "Any attempt to split Europe will fail," said German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

In Italy, a nation shocked by the killing of an Italian civilian captured by militants in Iraq, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said it was "unthinkable that we may open a negotiation with bin Laden, everybody understands this."

Britain rejected the notion it would remove its soldiers in return for immunity from attack.

"You know I don't think we need Osama bin Laden to start telling us how to handle our political affairs," Prime Minister Tony Blair said.