America marks six months since September 11

US President George Bush was to lead the nation in remembrance as it paid tribute to the lives of the more than 3,000 victims of the September 11 attacks.

And at the site of the World Trade Centre, a poignant ceremony was seeing the first memorial to the 2,830 who died at the twin towers inaugurated six months to the minute since the first hijacked plane struck.

New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was leading the service of commemoration which was being attended by many of those who lost loved ones in the attack and was to include a moment of reflection at 8.45am local time (1.45pm Irish Time), the minute the first hijacked plane struck.

The new memorial uses the remains of a massive sculpture which once stood in the plaza between the twin towers.

The Sphere, by sculptor Fritz Koenig, was a steel and bronze monument aimed at fostering world peace, which miraculously survived the collapse.

Although it was left with a gash in its centre, it was structurally intact and has now been relocated to Battery Park, just south of the site of the twin towers.

It was being unveiled during the multi-denominational service on a new plinth and is the first permanent memorial to the dead.

And at dusk today, twin lights which mark the place where the towers used to stand by projecting a beam into the sky were being officially switched on.

They will shine over Manhattan until mid-April, shortly before the clean-up of the World Trade Centre is due to be completed.

Workers have reached bedrock on much of the site and have finally started tackling the six-storey debris pile that marks the bottom of the south tower, the second to be hit and the first to collapse.

Already four police officers’ bodies have been found and recovery workers expect many more human remains to be found in it, although it is still believed that up to 2,000 families will never be given back the body of their loved ones.

In Washington, Mr Bush was hosting more than 1,300 people on the South Lawn of the White House at a ceremony beginning at 9.45am, the same time as a hijacked plane hit the Pentagon.

Family members of those who lost their lives at the Pentagon and World Trade Centre as well as on board United Flight 93, which crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, were to attend, alongside members of Congress.

Diplomats from 150 countries are expected to be at the White House, along with top brass from the American military and the countries involved in its campaign in Afghanistan.

Mr Bush was due to speak of America’s ongoing sorrow over the terror attacks, and its response to them.

The Pentagon was to keep its commemoration low-key, and work was not stopping on the rebuilding effort of the part of the massive building destroyed by the hijacked plane.

But 50 mayors, representing each of the states, were leaving a total of 184 floral tributes, representing each victim of the Pentagon attack.

Work has gone so quickly at the Pentagon that commanders expect to have workers back at their desks by September, a year since the attacks.

At Ground Zero in New York, the clean-up has outstripped progress on plans to replace the twin towers.

Last week Mr Bush announced extra cash to put the rebuilding plans, including a new public transport interchange in lower Manhattan, on track.

And the American government has also increased its much-criticised compensation payments to the families of the dead, guaranteeing an extra £70,000 for the relatives of each victim.