In New Zealand, a choir started singing Mozart's Requiem at 0846, the time in New York that the first plane smashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Pro and anti-US demonstrations were held in the Philippines

The music - Requiem aeternam dona ets, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ets (Grant them eternal rest, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine on them) - was also played by researchers at the South Pole.

One hundred and eighty choirs in 20 time zones across the world sang the same requiem, each beginning as their clocks reached the fateful minute.

On a beach in eastern Australia, more than 3,000 people dressed in red, white and blue formed a human flag.

In South Korea, flowers were laid in the garden of the US embassy, while in China, a photo exhibition entitled "After September 11: Images from Ground Zero" was opened at the Beijing National Library.

In Japan, an indigenous Japanese maple tree was planted in front of the US embassy in Tokyo as a symbol of friendship and support.

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US servicemen stationed at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan started their day with their customary flag-raising ceremony, and then lowered the standard to half-mast.

US soldiers were fired on, hours before they started their own ceremony

The US launched its campaign in Afghanistan as a direct result of the attacks on New York and Washington, and 5,000 troops remain in the country where an early morning attack on Bagram by a gunman demonstrated that violence remains.

Ceremonies of remembrance for the more than 3,000 people who died started as soon the calendar turned to 11 September.

Some small-scale memorials were held in Pakistan, but the AFP news agency reported that prayers services had been banned in Islamabad as a potential security risk.

Hundreds of people greeted the widow of a World Trade Center worker killed in the attacks when she travelled to his home in Imphal, India with her son to join Hindu prayers traditionally held one year after a death.

The Daily Star newspaper in Bangladesh described last year's attacks as "the most mindless, inhuman and destructive terrorist attacks ever".

But in common with other newspapers in the region, it criticised the Bush administration for its handling of global terrorism and focus on Iraq.

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Many ceremonies were held throughout Israel where the US ambassador said the attacks had brought the two countries closer than ever before.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon held a memorial outside his office to show solidarity with the US in which he said: "While the attack did succeed in destroying buildings and lives, and in causing agony, grief and profound shock to millions of people, it failed to extinguish the spirit of freedom and the eternal flame of the torch of liberty."

US servicemen held ceremonies around the world

Sailors on board the USS George Washington - the warship which was sent to the coast off New York in the wake of the attacks last year - held an emotional memorial service at sea in the Gulf before preparing to hand over responsibility for maintaining the southern no-fly zone over Iraq.

Inside Iraq - apparently now the main focus of US President George W Bush who wants to end the regime of Saddam Hussein - the anniversary was marked with a barrage of press scorn.

The official al-Iraq newspaper wrote: "Between the two Septembers, the American evil administration is pointing at Iraq as a very dangerous enemy which threatens world peace, in order to launch a new war under false excuses."

But in Iran - named with Iraq and North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" by President Bush, a government spokesman said the administration of President Mohammed Khatami wished to show its "solidarity with the innocent victims of this appalling act".

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Hundreds of people attended a memorial ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya, a city which was the site of a 1998 embassy bombing also blamed on al-Qaeda.

An interfaith service in St George's Anglican Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, commemorated firefighters who lost their lives on duty, including the New York personnel who died.

In some other African countries, the events of 11 September, 2001, were dwarfed by their own lingering tragedies, such as the 1994 genocide in Rwanda when more than the total death toll for the US attacks were killed every day during 100 days of slaughter.

But President Charles Taylor of Liberia declared 11 September a working holiday - whereby people are required to go to work as usual but also to spend time contemplating the reason behind the "holiday".

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Pope John Paul dedicated his weekly general audience in the Vatican to commemorate the attacks, saying: "No situation of hurt, no philosophy or religion can ever justify such a grave offence on human life and dignity."

Church services were held around Europe, including Russia

In Italy, a white banner placed by the Leaning Tower of Pisa read: "From the tower to the towers. September 11, 2002. Memory, solidarity and peace."

The Nobel Prize-winning poet Wislawa Szymborska wrote a tribute to the victims - particularly those people who leapt from the Twin Towers - which was published on the front page of the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper in Poland.

In France, the morning after two beams of light were projected into the Paris sky to honour those killed in the World Trade Center, President Jacques Chirac told a ceremony that "France knows what it owes America".

Britain commemorated the attacks with poignant memorial services - including a gathering of 2,000 people at St Paul's Cathedral - moments of silence and heightened security such as a no-fly zone over London.

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President Bush visited all three crash sites - at Ground Zero, the Pentagon, and Shanksville in Pennsylvania - attending ceremonies which were the focus of millions across the United States.

The victims will be remembered in almost every American community

Reports said that virtually every village, town and city in the 50 states had held some form of remembrance.

In Canada, Prime Minister Jean Chretien visited the remote town of Gander on Newfoundland which threw open its doors to thousands of passengers and airline crew diverted there after the US closed its airspace on 11 September last year.

But in Guantanamo Bay, the US military base in Cuba which continues to house 598 suspected members of the Taleban and al-Qaeda from the war in Afghanistan, Commander Rick Baccus said it would be an ordinary day for the detainees.

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