Bush to visit twin towers site on eve of Sept 11

WASHINGTON: President George W Bush will on Sunday visit the site where New York's twin towers once stood, marking five years since the Sept 11 attacks as an election-year debate intensifies over whether he has made America safer.   

In a two-day tour of all three Sept 11 crash sites -- the World Trade Center, Pentagon and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Flight 93 crashed -- Bush will strive to put aside partisan acrimony, if only temporarily.   

He has no prepared remarks for the visits, according to White House spokesman Tony Snow. Bush will attend a Sunday prayer service in New York and visit firefighters on Monday.   

He will save his formal remarks for a televised speech on Monday night. Snow said Bush will reflect on the anniversary and discuss the war on terrorism.   

Bush's approval ratings soared and his presidency was reshaped after he rallied the country from the ruins of the World Trade Center days after the 2001 attacks by al Qaeda. But the unity forged as Americans grieved the nearly 3,000 people killed in the hijacked airplane attacks has long since given way to sharp divisions over the Iraq war and the Bush administration's tactics in the war on terrorism.   

The rift has widened with the approach of the Nov. 7 election, in which Democrats have a strong chance to win back control of at least one chamber of Congress.