CAIRO: Al-Qaida's second-in-command told Muslims not to be fooled by US President Barack Obama's policies which, he said on an Islamist website yesterday, are no different to those of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

"America came to us with a new face, with which it is trying to fool us. He is calling for change, but (he aims) to change us so that we abandon our religion and rights," Ayman al-Zawahri said in an audio recording on the website.

Zawahri said Obama's election was an acknowledgement that Bush's policy had failed.