NEW YORK, Sept 11 (AFP) - Relatives of the 3,000 September 11 victims remembered their loss Saturday as US President George W. Bush and other world leaders vowed the war on global terrorism must go on.
Three years since 19 hijackers commandeered four aircraft, slamming three of them into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, leaders focused on the continuing threat of new attacks from still-potent Islamist militant groups.
A fourth aircraft crashed in the northeastern US state of Pennsylvania as its passengers apparently battled the hijackers for control.
"The United States is determined to stay on the offensive and to pursue the terrorists wherever they train or sleep or attempt to set down roots," Bush said in a live radio address to the nation from the Oval Office, where he was joined by relatives of victims of the attacks on the United States.
"We have conducted this campaign from the mountains of Afghanistan, to the heart of the Middle East, to the Horn of Africa, to the islands of the Philippines, to hidden cells within our own country."
Bush spoke after observing a moment of silence at the White House to honor the victims. Bush was accompanied by his wife, Laura, and Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne.
Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry attended a memorial service in his hometown of Boston and declared in a radio address that "freedom will win."
"On September 11 and the days that followed, we learned in the hardest way possible that the American spirit endures," Kerry said. "It is that spirit which leads us to defy the terrorists and affirm that freedom will win."
Bush said the Al-Qaeda attacks were a turning point for the United States, a comment echoed by other leaders.
"We saw the goals of a determined enemy, to expand the scale of their murder and force America to retreat from the world. And our nation accepted a mission. We will defeat this enemy," Bush said.
In Moscow, Russia paid tribute to the September 11 victims and called on the world to unite against terrorism "without double standards."
"Faced with this new dimension of terrorist danger, we need a new type of partnership, without double standards," the Russian foreign ministry said.
"There is no doubt that we, the civilised world, can win this battle if we acknowledge that terrorism is our number one enemy, if we are united and supportive of each other."
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov charged Thursday that the United States and Britain were setting double standards on Russia by demanding negotiations with Chechen separatists while fighting their own "war on terror."
Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski paid homage to the September 11 victims.
"It is with sadness, disappointment and shock seared in our memory that we remember the thousands of people who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania," he said.
He said international terrorism had become a "tool of criminals and madmen who are rejected by all peoples, the world community and all religions without exception."
Poland is a firm ally of the United States and backed the US-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in March 2003.
Some in the Arab and Muslim world had a different take on the anniversary, and said the September 11 attacks provided a pretext for US expansionism around the world.
"The events of September 11 were a minor crisis that the Americans have turned into a global crisis," according to conservative Iranian Mahmud Mohammadi, vice president of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.
In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit told a conference on regional security: "I can say that the greatest challenge threatening our security is the world's narrow vision in dealing with our region.
"This vision is the real threat facing our region, and recognizing it is the real challenge facing our partners."
Most of the September 11 hijackers were Saudi nationals, and a top aide of de facto Saudi Arabia ruler Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz admitted that the attacks had shaken traditionally close ties with Washington.
But in an interview published by the Saudi-owned daily Al-Haya, Adel al-Jubeir said they now approached their relations "more seriously" and with "greater transparency", leaving them "stronger and more solid."
In Pakistan security forces went on high alert to confront planned demonstrations by Pakistani Islamist parties against US "anti-Muslim policies."
In New York, the city paused in silence at 8:46 am (1246 GMT), the moment when the first of the hijacked airliners smashed into the World Trade Center towers.
Clutching flowers and framed photographs of their lost loved ones, family members of the 2,749 people who perished, many of them in tears, descended a ramp into the pit of Ground Zero for a somber ceremony of remembrance.
Many gathered, their heads bowed, around two pools of water -- representing a scaled-down version of what will become a permanent memorial to the victims.
Standing in silence, they listened as parents and grandparents of those who died took turns reading the names of victims from an elevated platform at the edge of the site.
"A man who loses his wife is a widower. A woman who loses her husband is a widow," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "There is no name for a parent who loses a child, for there are no words to describe this pain."
Australia and Indonesia meanwhile continued to investigate Thursday's bombing of Canberra's embassy in Jakarta, amid fears further attacks would follow.
Nine people were killed and about 180 injured in the attack, which stunned Indonesia and Australia ahead of elections in both countries.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard said the fight against terrorism would be long and bloody. "The world did change on that day. We are living in a different environment and even in a freedom-loving country such as Australia we have to recognise that."