Bush opens 3-day 9/11 commemorations

US soldiers stand in attention in front of a wall of flags at Bagram Air Base, some 40kms east of Kabul, yesterday as they take part in a ceremony remembering the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington. PHOTO: AFP

The war on terrorism "will not be won by force of arms alone. We must defeat the terrorists on the battlefield and we also must defeat them in the battle of ideas," he said in a speech at the State Department.

The president spoke as one of his longest-serving and most trusted aides, communications wiz Karen Hughes, formally took over as the diplomat in charge of fixing the United States' global image amid international criticism over the war in Iraq and Washington's response to Hurricane Katrina.

US forces in Afghanistan held a solemn ceremony on Saturday to mark the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, remembering those who died then and in the US-led war on terrorism that followed.

Several hundred servicemen and women gathered in a huge hanger-like tent at Bagram air base, on a sun-baked plain north of Kabul, for a service that began with a brief video of the hijacked aircraft attacks four years ago.

"I'm here, my fellow soldiers are here, because of those attacks. They are with us always," said Sergeant Rick Scavetta, from Hartford, Connecticut.

The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people.

US-led forces overthrew Afghan-istan's hardline Taliban regime in late 2001, after it refused to give up al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, architect of the attacks on the United States.

With much of the world aghast at US impotence in the face of the disaster, Bush emphasised the outpouring of sympathy and offers of aid from around the globe and compared it to the expressions of solidarity after the 2001 strikes.

"In this time of struggle, the American people need to know we're not struggling alone," he said. "I want to thank the world community for its prayers and for the offers of assistance."

Bush said that more than 100 countries had offered help, citing Afghanistan, Canada, Israel, Italy, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates as well as the 25,000-dollar pledge from impoverished Sri Lanka.

Later, Bush was to pay tribute to police, firefighters and military personnel killed in the September 11 attacks in a White House ceremony to award the "9/11 Heroes Medal of Valor" to surviving relatives.

On Saturday, Bush was to link September 11 and Katrina again in his weekly radio address, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan.