Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of the al-Qaida wing in Iraq, is said to send a new message to Osama bin Laden, a website statement said on Monday.

"We break the news to you our brothers that our sheikh Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ... will be sending his new message to sheikh of the mujahideen, the prince of al-Qaida Organization Osama bin Laden," said the statement.

The short statement's authenticity could not be verified immediately.

Meanwhile, Zarqawi confirmed he was "lightly" wounded. A voice message attributed to him posted Monday on the Internet said that " after the information according to which I was seriously wounded ... I want to reassure you that all this is pure rumour and totally unfounded ... but there are light wounds."

Being the most wanted man in Iraq, Zarqawi has a 25 million US dollars bounty on his head and is believed to be the mastermind of many deadly bombings and kidnappings in Iraq.

Source: Xinhua