Video of Osama bin Laden released

U.S. officials say nothing on the tape definitively answers when it was shot.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A brief video of Osama bin Laden released Sunday contains nothing indicating it was taped after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The Sunday Times in Britain said it obtained the video, an excerpt from a 40-minute film, from an Islamic news agency in Britain. The news agency said one of its journalists obtained it from a Pakistani operative who said it was taped in March.

If true, the tape would represent the latest evidence that bin Laden -- accused mastermind behind the September 11 attacks -- was alive this spring.

The last bin Laden tape showing conclusive evidence of a time reference was videotaped in late November or early December.

The Times said the video appears to have been taped on a spring evening, but bin Laden said nothing on the tape indicating it was made this spring.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she heard about the video but had not seen it.

EXTRA INFORMATION Chronology: Bin Laden on tape

"These videos appear from time to time," Rice said on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer." "We clearly want to analyze it and understand it better, but we don't know its sources, we don't know its character."

Asked if she believed bin Laden was alive, Rice responded, "We have no reason to believe that he's not. And we continue to act against the al Qaeda leadership to try and disrupt their activities and to try to destroy their home base."

In the video, bin Laden appears in a camouflage jacket with a mountain in the background.

The excerpt showing bin Laden lasts under two minutes. He seems to be talking to supporters gathered around him about the ongoing jihad, or holy war, in the name of the prophet Muhammed.

Other material on the tape includes excerpts from an interview of bin Laden by the Arab satellite news network al-Jazeera last fall.

The video also shows apparent al Qaeda operatives and other propaganda material.