Lagos — Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, yesterday launched a fresh vitriolic attack against the United States, alleging that recent religious crisis in Nigeria was engineered by America.

Gaddafi who spoke in Lusaka yesterday at the eve of a Pan Africa summit in the Zambian capital, also pointed accusing finger at Washington, over turmoil in Chechnya and elsewhere around the world, in which Moslems are involved.

"I say, beware of the Americans, do not allow them any influence in your countries," Gaddafi said in an address to Moslems in Lusaka.

"The Americans are infiltrating everywhere, using their intelligence agencies. See the Moslems fighting in Nigeria, it is the work of the Americans spreading suspicion and confusion," he said, referring to religious clashes in Africa's most populous nation last year.

Gaddafi also blamed fighting in the Russian Republic of Chechnya and in Yugoslavia on the Americans, adding that Russia itself remained a target of the United States.

Gaddafi, a self-proclaimed revolutionary leader, routinely attacks the United States and its policies, especially since US warplanes bombed Libya in 1986 over its alleged support for international terrorism.

In another development, a 16-year-old boy has been charged with the murder in London of a Nigerian schoolboy, Jude Akapa who died last Wednesday in London.

According to the police, the accused, who cannot be named for some reasons, would appear in court today. Jude Akapa , 15, who died from internal head injuries was believed to have been hit on the head by circumstances similar to those in which Damilola Taylor died.

The police believed that Jude was killed by bullies at St Joseph's Academy, Blackheath, southeast London.

Meanwhile, the acting Head of the School, Peter Stickings, has appealed to anyone with information on the murder to come forward and assist the police in its investigations.

Speaking at a floral tribute to Jude organised by the school, Sticking said that the school was highly devastated by the murder.