Obama pays homage to 9/11 victims at Ground Zero

New York: President Obama visited Ground Zero to lay a wreath at a memorial to the nearly 3,000 victims of the September 11 attacks, six days after ordering a daring night-time raid in Pakistan that killed Osama bin Laden, the author of the terrorist attack that turned the patch of land in lower Manhattan into hallowed ground.

Mr Obama, in his first visit as president to Ground Zero, met and spoke privately with family members of the victims, firefighters and other rescue workers who died in the 2001 attacks.

"He wants to meet with them and share with them this important and significant moment, a bittersweet moment," the White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said on Wednesday.

Mr Obama visited a firehouse on Manhattan's West Side and a police station before arriving at the memorial site for the wreath laying. Fifteen firefighters from the station, which houses Engine Company 54, Ladder Company 4 and Battalion 9, were killed on September 11, 2001, more than from any other station.

It is a quiet coda to a week that began with a stunning announcement by Mr Obama, just before midnight on Sunday, that a team of Navy Seals had stormed Bin Laden's hiding place - a fortified compound in an affluent town not far from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.

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Mr Obama invited former President George W Bush to join him at Ground Zero, but Mr Bush declined. A spokesman for the former president said he appreciated the invitation but wanted to stick to his policy of staying out of the public spotlight since he left office.

For Mr Bush, Ground Zero was the site of one of the iconic moments of his presidency. Days after the World Trade Centre towers collapsed, he traveled to the smoldering wreckage to thank the rescue workers, delivering his speech through a firefighter's bullhorn.

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The White House was quick to say it took no offense at Mr Bush's decision not to attend, saying that Mr Bush was invited in the spirit of unity that Mr Obama said he hoped would prevail in the wake of bin Laden's killing, just as it prevailed after the killings perpetrated by bin Laden nearly a decade ago.

"We've made clear that this is a moment of unity for Americans and a moment to recall the unity that existed in this country in the wake of the attacks on 9/11," Mr Carney said.

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Mr Obama visited Ground Zero while a presidential candidate, but he had not been there since entering the White House. He did not deliver a speech, a decision that White House officials said was calculated to avoid any appearance of exploiting the families of the victims for political gain.

"NYC is about honouring the victims and their families," one senior administration official said.

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On Friday, the President will go on the road again to Fort Campbell in Kentucky for a less somber occasion: To pay tribute to those who flew the Navy Seal team to bin Laden's compound deep inside Pakistan. The Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, which provided air transportation for the Navy assault team, is based at  Fort Campbell.