Washington ? An audiotape carrying what purports to be the voice of Saddam Hussein surfaced Wednesday, the first since the Iraqi president and his government were ousted by U.S. forces last month, reopening the mystery of Saddam’s fate and whereabouts.

Saying he was speaking “from inside great Iraq,” Saddam called on the Iraqi people to take part in a “secret style of struggle … to kick the enemy out from our country.” The 14-minute tape was apparently recorded after April 28 because the speaker referred to demonstrations that took place on that day in Saddam’s home town of Tikrit to celebrate his 66th birthday.

The tape was handed Monday in Baghdad to a reporter of the Sydney Morning Herald by two Iraqis who said they had wanted to give it to Arab-language broadcasters Al Jazeera or Al Arabia but were afraid to approach their Baghdad offices, which are guarded by U.S. and allied forces.

A translator for the Australian reporter who accepted the tape said that the two men spoke with accents of the Tikrit region north of the capital, Saddam’s family base.

U.S. intelligence analysts began studying the tape Wednesday to try to determine whether it was Saddam, but a senior administration official said it would take time because the U.S. government only has a rough copy downloaded from the Australian newspaper’s Internet site.

Although most intelligence analysts have said they believe the Iraqi leader survived two U.S. airstrikes aimed directly at him, on March 20 and April 7, U.S. intelligence agencies haven’t come to a consensus on the veracity of a videotape supposedly shot on April 9 that was said to show Saddam and his son Qusay walking near a mosque in Baghdad.

“We don’t know if Saddam Hussein is alive or dead,” White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Wednesday. “You can talk to different people in the administration and get different opinions, but the president has said we don’t know.”

On Tuesday night, however, Vice President Dick Cheney said he thought the March 20 airstrike on a bunker in Baghdad where Saddam was believed to be staying with his sons did hit the Iraqi leader because “he was seen being dug out of the rubble and wasn’t able to breathe.”

As for whether Saddam survived the attack, Cheney told an audience at Southern Methodist University in Dallas that “we don’t know.” But he added: “He’s not Osama bin Laden. He would find it difficult to go from those palaces to a cave.”

On the tape, the Saddam voice called for Iraqis to carry on a form of guerrilla warfare, taking a stand against the U.S. military force by “writing on walls, or making positive demonstrations … or by shooting them with your rifles and trying to destroy their cannons and tanks.”

He also said the Iraqi people should not listen to the Western media because they tell “many, many, lies.” He added that the Americans “stole Iraq’s ancient archaeology by destroying the Iraqi National Museum.” The museum was looted by Iraqis shortly after Baghdad fell.