Washington: The US Republican party has aired a campaign ad featuring Osama bin Laden ahead of next month's mid-term congressional elections.
In an effort to emphasise the issue of national security as a key issue for the elections, the $20,000 advert is featuring on two cable channels from Sunday.
The ad shows footage of the al-Qaeda leader accompanied by captions of threatening statements, with the soundtrack of a ticking bomb playing in the background.
"What is yet to come will be even greater," Osama bin Laden is quoted as saying. Another quote reads, "With God's permission we call on everyone who believes in God - to comply with his will and to kill the Americans."
The ad, which ends with the 'bomb' exploding, warns voters that "These are the stakes."
Democrats have hit out at the commercial, denouncing it as scaremongering.
Democrat Senator Charles Schumer accused Republicans of "trying to stoke people's fears".
He added that the commercial would be counter-productive as voters no longer believe Republicans are the party best suited to protecting the country:
"When Democrats present a plan for change and Republicans do fear-mongering in 2006 that helps us. Every time the Republicans talk about foreign policy it helps us because Americans know that our foreign policy is a mess," he said.
But Republicans insist that Democrats would endanger the country if they assumed control of the House and Senate:
"If the Democrats were to take over in the United States Senate it would weaken our security and our safety because they have been against the Patriot Act which is a very important tool in fighting the war against terror," said Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole.
The issue of national security proved crucial in 2002, with voters casting their ballots to keep Republicans in charge of Congress a year after the September 11 attacks.
In 2004, President Bush was re-elected after claiming that Democratic Senator John Kerry would falter in the face of terrorist threats.
Vice President Dick Cheney even suggested a vote for the Democrat would risk another terrorist attack.
Political analysts say that this year the public's overall dissatisfaction with the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration is eroding the Republican argument that they are the best party to protect the United States.
With little more than two weeks until the November 7 vote, polls show the Republicans no longer have the edge they has in previous years on the question of who would best keep the country safe with voters saying they don't trust one party more than the other on the issue.
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