Monday, September 11 2006 10:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: The United States on Sunday embarked on two days of solemn remembrance of the September 11 attacks of five years ago which stunned the world and dramatically changed the global landscape.

US President George W. Bush, whose presidency was reshaped by the terror strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people, launched the anniversary events by laying wreaths in reflecting pools where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood.

Accompanied by his wife, Laura, Bush silently placed two garlands at the spot popularly known as 'Ground Zero' before attending a service of prayer and remembrance at Saint Paul's Chapel across the street.

A few dozen protesters greeted Bush, whose approval ratings have dipped sharply since he stood in the ruins of World Trade Center with a bullhorn five years ago to rally the American people.



Bush's popularity has plunged mainly because of the war in Iraq and public concern over whether the country is safer five years after the devastation wrought by Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind who remains at large.

On the eve of the anniversary, US administration officials acknowledged that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was not behind September 11 but defended the decision to invade, insisting Saddam was linked to the Al-Qaeda network.

"We've never been able to confirm a connection between Iraq and 9/11," Vice President Dick Cheney said on NBC, but he added that a connection with Al-Qaeda was 'different issue.'

"There are two totally different propositions here. People have consistently tried to confuse them," he said, calling Saddam a state sponsor of terror and noting that the late Al-Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was in Iraq before the US invasion.

Five years after the attacks left the world's superpower reeling, September 11 remains the defining moment of Bush's presidency and a watershed in recent American history, spurring the United States to go to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

But despite the billions of dollars spent on the military campaigns, Bin Laden, believed to be hiding in the rough, mountainous region straddling the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, remains at large, and the Washington Post reported Sunday that his trail had grown 'stone cold.'

The newspaper said no tips, human or electronic, had led them anywhere near the Al-Qaeda leader, citing unnamed US and Pakistani officials.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowleged that the United States does not know Bin Laden's precise location.

"He doesn't communicate, apparently, very much," she said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.

"And it is not easy to track someone who is determined to hide in very remote areas," he said.

But, she said, there are fewer and fewer places for him to hide.

Bush has called for flags to fly at half mast on Monday and for people across the country to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 am (1816 IST), the exact time that the first of two planes ploughed into the World Trade Center.

Bush will lay a wreath in the Pennsylvania field where a third jet crashed after passengers fought back against their hijackers, killing 40 people.