Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate unanimously approved an extra $200 million to intensify the hunt for Osama bin Laden, as al-Qaeda released a video tape purporting to show the group's leader meeting some of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers.

``It's been five years, 1,822 days, since the attacks of 9/11,'' Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who sponsored the amendment to the 2007 Defense Appropriations Bill, said yesterday. ``Yet Osama bin Laden remains at large and capable of attacking our country again.''

Almost 3,000 people died when hijackers took control of four U.S. passenger planes in the largest terrorist attack in U.S. history. They crashed two of them into the World Trade Center in New York and one into the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Video footage first aired by the Arabic news channel al- Jazeera yesterday showed what the broadcaster said were bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders planning the attacks in an Afghan mountain camp. U.S. forces have been hunting for bin Laden in mountains close to the Pakistani border since a U.S.-led coalition toppled the Islamist Taliban regime that hosted his training camps.

Defense Spending

The Senate approved the extra funding by 96-0 votes, and also approved $468 billion for defense spending next year, including $50 billion more for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The 90-minute video shows bin Laden, wearing a dark robe and white head gear, walking in a rocky, mountainous area in the company of a group of men, which, according to al-Jazeera, includes some of the hijackers. Their faces aren't clear enough to be identified, the channel added.

Two of the hijackers, identified as Walid Al-Shehri and Hamza Al-Ghamdi, are shown in the video presenting their last wills and testaments, the broadcaster said.

Al-Jazeera also identified in the tape Abu Hafs al-Masri, a top al-Qaeda figure killed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan in 2001, and Ramzi Binalshibh, a Yemeni who allegedly planned the attacks.

Binalshibh, who was arrested in Pakistan in September 2002, was among 14 terrorist suspects whom U.S. President George W. Bush said on Sept. 6 had been transferred recently from secret detention centers run by the Central Intelligence Agency to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Fifth Anniversary

Al-Jazeera aired only three minutes of the tape and didn't say how it obtained the video. Al-Qaeda's intention in releasing the tape just days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the attacks is unclear, the channel said on its Web site, adding the move may be intended to shore up support for the pan-Islamic movement in the Arab world.

Al-Qaeda's popularity is waning among Muslims, as traditional Islamic leaders condemn its violent tactics as un- Islamic, the London-based think tank, Chatham House, said in a report published yesterday.

``It is now clear that al-Qaeda has failed to transform itself into a widespread movement. It remains a terrorist organization which echoes the concerns of Muslim majorities but has achieved diminishing support for its tactics,''

A small minority of Muslims in Western communities find the al-Qaeda cause appealing, posing a problem of ``home grown'' terrorism, the report added.

Al-Jazeera also broadcast a video message yesterday attributed to Abu Hamza al-Muhajer, who became al-Qaeda's new leader in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in June by U.S. forces.

``Now is the time to unite,'' al-Muhajer said on the tape, addressing Muslims in Iraq, the channel reported on its Web site. ``Kill at least one American within a period not exceeding 15 days,'' he added.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at ejohnson28@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 7, 2006 23:29 EDT