Osama Bin Laden's recent mention of a book has sent the title soaring up the Amazon bestseller lists.

In his latest audio tape to the outside world Bin Laden mentioned Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by former US State Department official William Blum. 

The book has since shot into the top 50 on Amazon's bestseller list, up from a ranking below the 200,000 mark last week.

"If Bush declines but to continue lying and practising injustice [against us], it is useful for you to read The Rogue State," said Bin Laden.

He also quoted a line from one of Blum's other books, mistakenly attributing it to The Rogue State.

The sudden publicity has come as something as a shock to the 72 year-old author, who has written many books on American foreign policy and publishes a fortnightly newsletter entitled The Anti-Empire Report.

Blum's books look at the darker side of US foreign policy, from the end of the Second World War onwards. He has won praise from such luminaries as Gore Vidal for his unflinching analysis of the way American governments have operated.

"From 1945 to the end of the century, the US attempted to overthrow more than 40 foreign governments, and to crush more than 30 populist nationalist movements struggling against intolerable regimes," he claimed in The Rogue State.