Bush vows victory as US mourns

People are desperately searching for loved ones

President Bush has promised that America will "lead the world to victory" over terrorism in a conflict he described as the first war of the 21st century.

Make no mistake about it, my resolve is steady and strong about winning this war that has been declared on America

President Bush

And in what could be an important breakthrough in the investigations, one of the black boxes has been found from the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Almost 5,000 people remain missing in New York - buried beneath the wreckage of the World Trade Center - according to Mayor Rudolf Guiliani. Another 190 people are thought to have died in the Pentagon in Washington.

In other developments:

• The White House declares Friday a national day of prayer and remembrance.
• Nato and Russia pledge increased co-operation to defeat the "scourge of terrorism".
• In the FBI's biggest ever operation many of the hijackers have been identified - some were trained as pilots in the US.
• Secretary of State Colin Powell confirms Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden is a prime suspect.
• But the Taleban in Afghanistan reject the accusations against him.
• Congress prepares to vote $20bn in funds for emergency relief.
• US airspace reopens - but only international flights by US carriers are allowed in.

Click here to see a map of New York's damaged buildings

President Bush, who held a conference call with New York's Governor George Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, said he planned to visit the city on Friday.

He also said Americans should resist any temptation to retaliate for the New York and Washington attacks by targeting individual, innocent Arab-Americans and Muslims.

"Now's the time for the country to be united", he said.

In New York, distraught relatives have been carrying photographs of their loved ones onto the city streets in attempts to trace them.

But with no flood of injured victims reaching hospital, the worst fears for the missing appear to have been confirmed.

A report during the day of a miraculous rescue of five firefighters turned out to be erroneous, denting hopes that people were still to be found under the rubble.

Two members of the fire service, however, were pulled from the debris after being trapped for a few hours.

Mr Guiliani warned that the current figure of 4,763 missing may not represent an accurate death toll.

Several hundred firemen and police officers remain among those unaccounted for.

Many foreigners are also dead, including at least 100 from the UK.

In Washington, Pentagon officials said they now estimated around 190 people died when a plane ploughed into the defence building. This included 64 people on board the airliner.

Unprecedented search

The scale of the US search for those behind the attacks is unprecedented.

The authorities are throwing all their resources at the case - more than 4,000 FBI special agents, with more than 3,000 support staff.

Death toll

All 266 on board the four planes

About 190 feared dead at the Pentagon

94 bodies found at the WTC, but thousands thought to remain inside

Nearly 100 Britons confirmed dead

At least 259 rescue workers missing, feared dead

New York orders 11,000 body bags

The FBI has been following up hundreds of leads and conducted searches in different locations across the country.

The FBI said they believed there were 18 hijackers on board the four hijacked planes.

Washington suspects the mastermind behind the attacks is Saudi dissident Osama Bin Laden.

Thousands of workers remain missing

But the supreme leader of Afghanistan's ruling Taleban, Mullah Mohammad Omar, said Mr Bin Laden could not be held responsible as only trained pilots could have carried out the attacks.

"The incidents which took place in America are testimony to Osama Bin Laden's innocence because where are Osama's pilots and where were they trained?" Mullah Omar told the Afghan Islamic Press, a Pakistan-based news agency with close links to the Taleban.

Correspondents said his remarks indicate the Taleban, who have sheltered Mr Bin Laden since the mid 1990s, have no intention of bowing to pressure to hand him over.

NATO and Russia are united in their resolve not to let those responsible for such an inhuman act go unpunished

Joint Nato-Russian statement

US airspace, closed since the attacks, was reopened at 1100EDT (1500GMT) on Thursday, with airports being allowed to resume operations on a case-by-case basis.

US Transport Secretary Norman Mineta said airports would implement much tougher security measures.

But it later emerged that only incoming international flights by US carriers would be accepted, forcing flights by the Italian and Portuguese airlines to turn back.

Fresh support from the US came in a rare joint statement by Nato and Russia on Thursday, pledging increased co-operation to defeat the "scourge" of terrorism.

"The horrific scale of the attacks of 11 September is without precedent in modern history," the statement said.

"Nato and Russia call on the entire international community to unite in the struggle against terrorism."

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