The United States has no information that Osama bin Laden has died despite his continuing silence, the White House said Wednesday after the broadcast of a new message from al-Qaeda`s number two.

`I`d have to refer you to the intelligence community for that. I don`t believe that we have any intelligence that suggests that he is not living,` said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

She had been asked whether the new message from Ayman Zawahiri raised any new questions about the fate of the terrorist network`s number one.

Perino dismissed Zawahiri`s verbal broadside against US president-elect Barack Obama as `more despicable and pathetic comments by al-Qaeda terrorists.`

Zawahiri, in an Internet audio message released on Wednesday, ridiculed Obama as a `house negro` and warned him against sending more troops to Afghanistan.

`I think that the comments that al-Qaeda makes are totally irrational. They attack everything and anything that is American. And so they just look for targets of opportunity, both verbally and physically, and that`s why we have to stop them,` said Perino.