Osama bin Laden sits during an interview with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir (not pictured) in an image supplied by the respected Dawn newspaper, November 10, 2001. REUTERS/Hamid Mir/Editor/Ausaf Newspaper for Daily Dawn

DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden threatened the European Union with grave punishment over the re-publication of cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Mohammad that Muslims saw as offensive.

Bin Laden in an audio recording posted on the Internet said that the drawings which were published by Danish and other newspapers were part of a “crusade” in which the Catholic Pope was involved.