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People cry as they kneel next to a reflecting pool at the bottom of the Ground Zero site of the World Trade Center, on the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in New York yesterday. - Reuters

NEW YORK, (Reuters):

Americans bowed their heads in silence and bagpipes played mournful tunes yesterday where hijackers crashed airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon five years ago, killing nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest attack on United States soil.

Ceremonies starting on Sunday night revived traumatic memories of the day when al-Qaida hijackers attacked the twin New York towers and the Pentagon in Washington and seized a fourth plane that crashed into the ground in Pennsylvania.

The anniversary has sharpened an election-year debate over whether America, caught in a vicious unpopular conflict in Iraq, is any safer.

At the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed on September 11, Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, both lightning rods of criticism over the Iraq war, stood as bagpipes played 'Amazing Grace'.

Cheney called September 11 "a day of national unity," then added later: "We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power."

His comment seemed aimed at critics of U.S. war policies, coming two weeks after Rumsfeld angered Democrats by saying "some seem not to have learned history's lessons" and that some politicians had wanted to appease Hitler's Germany before World War Two.

His approval ratings weighed down by the war, President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura, stood at New York's Fort Pitt firehouse and bowed their heads for two moments of silence in New York, first at 8:46 a.m., the moment a plane flew into the north tower, and again at 9:03 a.m. EDT (1303 GMT), when the south tower was hit.

Jarring images of the day - smoke billowing from the towers, New Yorkers crying in the streets, debris falling from the darkened sky - dominated U.S. television and newspapers.

At ground zero, where the 110-story towers pancaked to the ground, New York police and firefighters marched down a ramp into the pit for a solemn, flag-waving ceremony on a day of crisp, clear blue skies, eerily similar to Sept. 11 five years ago.

"Five years have come and gone, and we still stand together," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a crowd that included relatives of those who died.

Spouses and partners of victims were reading out the names of all 2,749 who died at the World Trade Center, where 25,000 people had worked.

Another 40 were killed when United Flight 93 crashed into the countryside at Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after a passenger revolt before it could hit its Washington target.

Nineteen hijackers also died in the attacks.

Security officials were taking extra precautions. A United Airlines flight was diverted to Dallas after an unclaimed backpack and Blackberry e-mail device were found on board. The plane and its 50 passengers were searched again and cleared.

Al Qaeda warned in a video aired on the anniversary that U.S. allies Israel and the Gulf Arab states would be its next target. The Islamic group's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, urged Muslims to step up attacks against the United States and the West, according to excerpts aired by CNN.

Osama bin Laden was nowhere to be seen. The Washington Post reported on Sunday the search for him had gone "stone cold."

DAY OF REMEMBRANCES

Bush began his day at New York's Fort Pitt firehouse, which lost one firefighter on Sept. 11. Later he planned to attend ceremonies in Shanksville and at the Pentagon before addressing the nation from the Oval Office at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT).

The airplane attacks transformed Bush into a self-described war president and he received high marks from Americans for responding with attacks on al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

But the warm glow cooled as American casualties mounted in the Iraq war and the hunt for bin Laden foundered.

Facing the prospect that Democrats could wrest control of Congress from his fellow Republicans in the November election, Bush has been pushing his national security credentials as he did successfully during his 2004 re-election campaign.