Ground Zero 'vision of hell'

Jack Straw surveyed the wreckage

The site of the terror attacks on New York has been branded a "modern vision of hell" by the UK's foreign secretary.

Mr Straw spoke of his shock after a visit to Ground Zero where he and his wife surveyed the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

During his visit he laid a wreath at a makeshift memorial for rescue workers who died trying to save people from the Twin Towers before they collapsed on 11 September.

"I've just seen a modern vision of hell," he said.

For all the television shots and accounts of this, there is no substitute for having seen and smelt this terrible evil

Jack Straw

"I was last here with my wife and children six years ago when like so many thousands of people from around the world I enjoyed the view from the top of the World Trade Center - and now this.

"For all the television shots and accounts of this, there is no substitute for having seen and smelt this terrible evil."

Mr Straw said he had come to Ground Zero on Friday to share in the grief of those who lost loved ones and to "salute the extraordinary courage" of the emergency workers.

The foreign secretary is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, which starts on Saturday.

UN task

"The UN stands for everything the terrorists were seeking and still seek to destroy," he said.

"What the UN has to do is live up even more to its founding values seeking to make the world safe for successive generations from war, and I would now add terrorism."

He denied suggestions the US-led air strikes on Afghanistan threatened to escalate into a war between civilisations, saying the coalition was in fact getting stronger.

He emphasised that it was a war "of all civilisations against terrorism".

As well as visiting Ground Zero on Friday, Mr Straw had a private meeting with New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at City Hall.

He also visited the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, close to the World Trade Center site, which was used as a memorial for Britons who died in attacks.