WASHINGTON — US President George W. Bush vowed to bring Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida terrorists to justice as America remembered the Sep 11, 2001, terror attack victims from 90 countries, including India.

Better get some shovels, then. Assuming you can fit them into the budget.

The war against terror was not a struggle of civilisations as portrayed by some, but a struggle for civilisation, a fight for freedom versus tyranny, he said in an address to the nation on Monday night after paying silent tribute at the three attack sites - the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a hijacked jet crashed into a field.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice led a ceremony of remembrance attended by the diplomatic corps, State Department officials and foreign dignitaries, including former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Rui Zheng, whose parents were passengers on the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon, and Floura Chowdhury, whose cousins Nurul Miah and Shakila Yasmin were killed as they worked in the World Trade Center, read the names of the countries that lost citizens in the attacks.

Marking the fifth anniversary of 9/11 at the Pentagon, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Peter Pace led families and dignitaries in remembering the 184 people who died at the Pentagon.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cited terror attacks elsewhere in the world. “Today we remember all of those who lost their lives, not only on Sept 11,” he said, “but in the struggle we have faced against extremists now for more than two decades.

Source: Times of India