By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent

United Nations -- Meeting in "remembrance and resolve" world leaders gathered at the United Nations September 11 and made the international fight against terrorism the centerpiece of the UN's observances of the terrorist attacks on the United States September 11.

Heads of state, foreign ministers, and other senior officials from around the world gathering at the UN for the opening session of the 57th General Assembly, attended a special Security Council meeting to reaffirm their dedication to fighting terrorism. In the morning, a commemoration ceremony was held on the north lawn of the UN complex as well.

Both the Security Council and the General Assembly met on September 12, 2001 -- the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and the plane crash in Pennsylvania -- to condemn the terrorist attacks and call on all states to cooperate in bringing the perpetrators to justice. Within a matter of days the council then adopted a binding, far-reaching landmark resolution targeting terrorists and those who aid them and setting out means for stronger cooperation among nations.

At the anniversary Security Council meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed the United States "abiding gratitude to all those who reached out to us at our time of national trial."

But the secretary focused his remarks on the imperative of fighting terrorism.

"Amid the fire and smoke, confusion and shock, some things became very clear to us in the United States and to the entire international community. It was clear that the terrorists did not just strike America, they attacked the values of the civilized world that are enshrined in the United Nations Charter. It was clear that terrorism is a threat to international peace and security and it was clear that all the world's nations had to take concerted action if this menace was to be eradicated once and for all," the secretary said.

"We are all in this together," he said.

In the past 12 months much has been accomplished, Powell said. "We have taken decisive steps to weaken terrorism's deadly grip on various parts of the globe, not least on Afghanistan.... In the world, the international community is making it harder by the day for terrorists to support their operations, acquire weapons of mass destruction, move about freely, find sanctuary, communicate and plot."

Thanks to the combined efforts of nations, every day, somewhere in the world terrorists are being arrested, cells are being broken up, financial bloodlines severed, plans disrupted, and attacks foiled, the secretary said.

The actions "have shown the power of our collective will," Powell said. Nevertheless, the secretary warned that to eliminate terrorism as a global menace the fight has to be more than a response to September 11 and it will be a "long, hard effort measured in years, not in months."

The council issued a presidential statement read by the President of Bulgaria Georgi Parzanov. Bulgaria holds the presidency of the council for the month of September.

"The threat is real, the challenge is enormous, and the fight against terrorism will be long," the statement said. "The Security Council will remain steadfast against the threat that endangers all that has been achieved, and all that remains to be achieved, to fulfil the principles and purposes of the United Nations for all people everywhere."

In its statement, the council reiterated its support for the coalition that took action against the Taliban, al-Qaeda and their supporters; resolution 1373 which made the fight against terrorism a mandatory obligation for UN member states; and the Counter-Terrorism Committee.

"New York is the home of the United Nations," the statement said. "The Security Council admires this city's determination to forge ahead, to rebuild, not to give into terrorism. The deaths and destruction of 11 September strengthen our common bonds and aspirations."

Secretary General Kofi Annan said that "the past year has given us hope that terrorism can be defeated if the international community summons the will to unite in a broad coalition. As the work of this council has shown, the United Nations remains uniquely positioned to serve as the forum for this coalition, and for the development of those steps governments must now take -- separately and together -- to combat terrorism on a global scale."

At a the morning commemoration ceremony the president of the 57th General Assembly session, Jan Kavan of the Czech Republic, and representatives of the UN staff joined the secretary general and U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte in remembering the victims of the attacks.

"There could be no greater affront to the spirit and purpose of the United Nations than the terrorist attacks of September 11," the secretary general said. "Everything we work for -- peace, development, health, freedom -- is damaged by this horror. Everything that we believe in -- respect for human life, justice, tolerance, pluralism and democracy -- is threatened by it. It must be defeated by the world acting as one."

The United Nations, Annan said, is not an enclave somehow isolated from the rest of the city. "We at the United Nations are, in the deepest sense of the word, a part of this community."

Negroponte said that "September 11, 2001 reminded us -- and will always remind us -- that every day is precious. Every day is a struggle between doing what is right and what is wrong."

"Today we honor the victims' inspiring lives. We also give thanks for those heroes who, in the last twelve months, have made the ultimate sacrifice in driving terror from the face of the earth so that the worst part of September 11, 2001 might become history and the best part -- the miracle of constructive human endeavor -- might become the future," the U.S. ambassador said.

The United States is grateful for the solidarity against terrorism demonstrated so forcefully by the General Assembly and the Security Council, the ambassador said. "We must make common cause against terror and we have made common cause against terror."

"A great coalition of states has taken action against the Taliban, al Qaeda and their supporters. In President Bush's words, justice is being served, and the high purposes of the UN charter are being fulfilled," Negroponte said.

Kavan, president of the General Assembly which opened its 57th session September 10, appealed to the UN's 190 member states "to uphold and reinforce the coalition carrying out our common responsibility to fight international terrorism."

"In our fight we must see terrorism for what it is -- a global evil filled with hatred and extremism, an evil which threatens the common values and principles, as well as the diversity, of the entire civilized world. We cannot let terrorism hide behind faith or culture. Terrorism is our irreconcilable enemy and any attempt to appease it will backfire," the assembly president said.

While the commemoration is symbolic, Kavan said, "in our work at the United Nations we must go beyond words -- we must produce results in the form of practical steps to suppress the menace of terrorism at its roots."