British PM joins Londoners in remembering 9/11

Britons on both sides of the Atlantic gathered to remember the Sept. 11 attacks and Prime Minister Gordon Brown called U.S. President George W. Bush to discuss the allies' strategy for tackling extremism.

Almost 3,000 people, including 67 Britons, were killed in the attacks.

Brown told reporters his country had supported the United States in the "terrible days after Sept. 11" and reminded Britons that their nation still faced a dangerous terrorist threat.

"I do not think it is possible to say anything other than we are permanently on our guard, permanently vigilant against al-Qaida," Brown said. A call with Bush later in the day covered "the need to remain committed to the fight against extremists," according to Gordon Johndroe, the U.S. president's national security spokesman.

In New York, mourners gathered at the British Memorial Garden at Hanover Square. The park, a gift to the city of New York from the Anglo-American community, hosted a small ceremony in remembrance of the British victims of the attacks. Simultaneously in London, relatives of the victims performed at a concert in Grosvenor Square, across from the U.S. Embassy.

London Mayor Boris Johnson, a New York native, told the assembled crowd that the two capitals stood together in sorrow.

"The two greatest cities on earth are branches of the great tree of English-speaking democratic culture of which we are so proud, two cities united in their tolerance, love of freedom, their willingness to welcome people from all over the earth - and united in their grief at the losses they have both sustained," Johnson said.

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