CAIRO, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- Doha-based al-Jazeera satellite television Wednesday broadcast a tape by al-Qaida's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri who called for a holy war to liberate Palestine.

    In the video tape, the al-Qaida number two said that only Jihad(holy war) can bring about the liberation of the occupied Palestinian territories and any other way will only lead to loss and defeat.

    "Those trying to liberate the land of Islam through elections based on secular constitutions ... will not liberate a grain of sand of Palestine," he added.

    The deputy leader of Al-Qaida made the comments against the backdrop of a call by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last Saturday for early elections in an attempt to defuse escalating conflicts between Fatah and the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement(Hamas).

    During the short footage of a video tape, whose authenticity could not be independently confirmed, Zawahri called Abbas as "America's man in Palestine," warning that if Palestinians accepted Abbas as their president, it would be "the end of holy war".

    Zawahri said that Palestinian elections would not free Palestinian land and would deal a blow to holy war against Israeli occupation.

    Muslim's retreating will not win the approval of the West despite their skilled maneuvering and talking, he said.

    The new message of Zawahri came two days after an Islamic militant website announced on Monday that Osama bin Laden's second-in-command would soon release a new message.

    In September, Zawahri released a video to mark the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack, calling U.S. President George W. Bush a "lying failure" for saying progress had been made in the war on terrorism.