White House Report, Jan. 5: Afghanistan, Guatemala, bin Laden audio tape

President Bush called President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan January 5 "to congratulate him and the members of the Loya Jirga on their success yesterday in adoption of a new constitution," White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters.

"President Karzai thanked the President and said it was a great day for Afghanistan. The two briefly discussed the war on terrorism and the Kandahar-Kabul highway," that recently opened, McClellan said.

BUSH CONGRATULATES GUATEMALA'S PRESIDENT-ELECT

President Bush January 5 called Guatemala's President-elect Oscar Berger, a former mayor of Guatemala City, "to congratulate him on his electoral victory" in the January 4 runoff election. "And both leaders affirmed their mutual interest in a strong, cooperative relationship between the United States and Guatemala," McClellan said.

WHITE HOUSE SAYS VOICE ON TAPE IS LIKELY BIN LADEN'S

Asked for White House reaction to the most recent purported audio tape of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, McClellan said, "our intelligence team has analyzed it to determine whether it is authentic or not. And they have determined that it is likely that the voice on the tape is bin Laden's. And I think that obviously we will continue to carefully review the contents of the tape."

The Arabic television channel Al Jazeera aired the tape January 4.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)