US President Mr George W. Bush has issued a rallying call to Americans, telling them they are stronger and more united following the September 11th attacks.
Speaking in Atlanta, Georgia, he told Americans the US was waging a war to save civilisation itself and called on them to turn their fears into action - volunteering in hospitals, schools, homeless shelters and at military facilities, or training for emergency service work and joining a new civil defence force he hoped to build.
In the prime-time address, he paid tribute to the country's "new heroes", the rescue workers and public servants who had helped America's recovery and pledged the United States would prevail against terrorists.
"We have entered a new era. This new era requires new responsibilities - both for the government and our people," the president said.
"We are a different country than we were on September 10 - sadder and less innocent; stronger and more united; and in the face of ongoing threats, determined and courageous," he told a crowd of 5,000. Most of those were police, postal workers, firefighters and other uniformed public servants.
But nearly two months after the terror attacks in New York and Washington, Bush conceded his administration did not know who unleashed anthrax in the US mail.
Nor did he offer hope that US troops would soon find Osama bin Laden and unravel his Afghanistan-based terrorist network.
But he confidently predicted victory abroad, saying: "We will persevere in this struggle, no matter how long it takes to prevail".
Overnight US aircraft carried out more heavy bombing raids on Taliban positions in Afghanistan.
A flotilla of Japanese warships has set sail for the Gulf to back the Allied effort. It becomes the nation's first military contingent to be deployed in support of combat forces since the Second World War .
The ships were dispatched under a new law that allows Japan's self-defence forces to participate in a back-up role in the US-led war against terrorism.
But the new law restricts Japan's naval and other units to non-combat missions in areas where hostilities are not expected.
PA