DUBAI - Al Qaeda's deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, on Monday appeared in a new video in which he urged Muslims to step up their attacks as the United States marked the fifth anniversary of the September 11 strikes.

A frame grab of a video released on September 2, 2006 shows al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri speaking. Al Qaeda called on U.S. President Bush and non-Muslims especially in the U.S. to convert to Islam and abandon their 'misguided' ways or else suffer the consequences, a video posted on a Web site said on Saturday. [Reuters]

CNN, which aired the lengthy video, said it was available on Islamist Web sites, but it could not be found on the mainstream sites often used by militant groups.

CNN quoted Zawahri as saying that "new events" were on the way. It said he also urged Muslims to intensify their resistance to the United States.

"Your leaders are hiding from you the true extent of the disaster," Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's right-hand man, said in the video. "And the days are pregnant and giving birth to new events, with God's permission and guidance."

Al Jazeera television also aired what appeared to be an excerpt from the same video, which showed Zawahri dressed in white and sitting in front of a book case.

Zawahri held the U.S.-allied governments of Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia responsible for the killing of Muslims in the Middle East, Al Jazeera said.