Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has asked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who heads the insurgent group blamed for numerous car bombings and beheadings throughout Iraq, to target the US, officials said Monday.

"There has been communication between bin Laden and Zarqawi within the past two months, during which bin Laden suggested to Zarqawi to involve himself in attacks in the United States," a US counter-terrorism official told reporters in Washington.

Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant, has been leading insurgency in Iraq but has so far not attacked targets outside the Middle East.

Zarqawi at par with Osama

The Homeland Security Department too issued

a classified bulletin warning state officials over the weekend that new intelligence indicated that al Qaeda was still planning to attack the United States.

The fresh intelligence about the continued al Qaeda desire was "credible but not specific," and there is no plan to raise the national alert level, department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.