Faisal Shahzad said: "This attack on the United States will be a revenge for all the mujahedeen (holy warriors)... and oppressed Muslims, including... Abu Musab al Zarqawi," the late leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

The recording, whose authenticity could not immediately be confirmed, was made in English before the attack in New York and had an Arabic voiceover when it was shown on the Al-Arabiya network.

"I will carry this attack on their behalf, and I hope that it will please Muslims," Shahzad, a Pakistani-American, said in the first video linking him to the failed bomb plot on May 1.

The car bomb targeted New York's theatre district

"With jihad (holy war), the basis of Islam can be enforced and the word of Allah and his religion will prevail," he said.

Dubai-based Al-Arabiya said the video was 40 minutes long and that Shahzad appeared in the video with Faqir Mohammed, the Taliban leader in Pakistan's region of Bajaur, though that footage was not broadcast.

Shahzad, 30, has admitted terrorism charges and will be sentenced later.

Faisal Shahzad has admitted terrorism charges

He drove a Nissan sports utility vehicle packed with a large but malfunctioning bomb into Manhattan's busy theatre district as thousands flocked to the area.

He was arrested just before his flight left New York's JFK airport and 53 hours after police found the homemade bomb smouldering in the SUV parked outside a theatre staging The Lion King musical.

The notorious Zarqawi he referred to orchestrated a bloody campaign of attacks and beheadings in Iraq.

He was killed north of Baghdad in a US air strike in 2006.