* Leader says easy to make small bombs at home

* Calls for attacks on writers backing Middle East rulers

* Al Qaeda active mainly in Muslim countries in recent years

DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - The leader of al Qaeda's wing in the Arabian Peninsula called on militants to attack airports and trains in the West and said they could easily make bombs from household materials, the group's Internet magazine said.

The Islamist group has been trying to secure small victories to maintain its feared image after its leaders' threats to carry out large-scale attacks on Western targets have been discounted as words without deeds, analysts say.

Abu Basir Nasser al-Wahayshi, in an article in the e-magazine Sada al-Malahem, also urged militants to assault secular media figures and columnists who promote the policies of rulers in the world's top oil exporting region.

"You do not need to exert great effort or spend a lot of money to make 10 grams of explosives, more or less. Do not spend a long time searching for materials as they already exist in your mother's kitchen," Wahayshi wrote in the article, posted on an Islamist website on Sunday.

"Make them (bombs) in the shape of a bomb you hurl, or detonate through a timer or a remote detonater or a martyrdom-seeker belt or any electrical appliance."

Wahayshi said bombers should attack countries involved in wars in Muslim countries as well as government figures and security bodies in the Middle East.

Over the past two years, al Qaeda has been active mainly in Muslim countries like Algeria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen after carrying out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities.

Wahayshi urged followers to use knives or sticks to attack "secular media figures and writers who mock the orders of religion and those who promote and justify (the actions) of infidel rulers".

"Knives are a good remedy for some and ... (for others) severe beating until they are confined to bed or lose one of their senses," added the militant leader.

Calling on militants to assassinate al Qaeda's enemies, Wahayshi stated that "It is a duty that a Muslim mujahid be busy planning to reap the heads of infidels."

In August, an al Qaeda suicide bomber tried to kill the Saudi prince in charge of the kingdom's anti-terrorism campaign, the first attack on a member of the royal family since the group began a wave of violence in the country six years ago.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter and a key U.S. ally in the Middle East, was forced to confront its own role in rising militancy at home and abroad when its nationals turned out to be behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

Several countries in the region have been attacked by al Qaeda militants trying to destabilise Western-allied governments. (Reporting by Inal Ersan, editing by Tim Pearce)

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