US intelligence officials say that Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, the top ally of Osama bin Laden in Iraq, has talked about hitting "soft targets" in the United States such as movie theaters, restaurants and schools, the Time magazine reported Sunday.

Intelligence officials tell the magazine that interrogation of a member of al-Zarqawi's organization, who was taken into US custody last year and has been described as a top aide, indicates that al-Zarqawi has given ample consideration to assaults on the American homeland.

A restricted bulletin that circulated among US security agencies last week noted that al-Zarqawi apparently believes that "if an individual has enough money, he can bribe his way into the US," specifically by obtaining a "visa to Honduras" and then traveling across Mexico and the southern US border.

Al-Zarqawi's aide also revealed that his boss concluded that a lack of "willing martyrs" was to blame for the absence of attacks in the United States in recent years, the report said.

Intelligence officials said there was no evidence that al-Zarqawi's agents have infiltrated the United States. But security sources tell the Time that just last week the FBI sent out two nationwide bulletins warning of a nonspecific threat to railroads in Detroit and Los Angeles.

Intelligence officials have confirmed that bin Laden sent a message to al-Zarqawi early this month, urging him to plan attacks on US soil.

(Xinhua News Agency March 14, 2005)