Bush Marks 9/11 Anniversary

George Bush laid a wreath at Ground Zero last night as he began a two-day tour that will take him to all three sites of devastation on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The US president and his wife Laura silently placed a floral wreath upon reflective pools that mark the former locations of the twin towers.

They also attended a service of prayer and remembrance at nearby St Paul's chapel, greeted firefighters at a fire station overlooking the site of the attack and toured a private museum that is dedicated to the victims' families.

"Laura and I approach tomorrow with heavy hearts. It's hard not to think about people who lost their lives on September 11 2001," Mr Bush told reporters outside the fire station. "I wish there were some way we could make them whole."

The president called today's anniversary "a day of renewed resolve". "I vowed that I'm never going to forget the lessons of that day. There is still an enemy out there who would like to inflict the same kind of damage."

The memorial ceremony marked the official beginning of nearly 24 hours of commemorations at the three sites of the attack in which almost 3,000 people were killed.

Today the president will meet with firefighters and other emergency workers in lower Manhattan and attend a ceremony at the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 crashed to the ground.

He will also lay a wreath at the Pentagon before speaking to Americans during a prime-time TV address.

The 9/11 anniversary comes two months ahead of the US mid-term elections and has triggered a partisan battle over whether the country is vulnerable to a new terror attack.

The secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice yesterday said that the US was safer now than it was five years ago but not yet truly safe.

The vice president, Dick Cheney, also defended the Bush administration's record on improving the national defence over the past five years. "There has not been another attack on the United States," Cheney told NBC. "And that's not an accident."