Muslims in 40 mosques across the capital Berlin devoted their Friday prayers sermons to denounce terrorism and pray for peace.

BERLIN — Thousands of German Muslims on Friday, September 8, paid tribute to the victims of the terrorist 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Imams in 40 mosques across the capital Berlin devoted their Friday prayers sermons to denounce terrorism and pray for peace, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

The move was part of an initiative organized by the German Muslim academy and the authorities entitled "A Prayer for Peace and Collective Responsibility".

Riem Spielhaus, the president of the Muslim Academy, said the prayers made clear that Muslims were part of this society.

He added that the initiative also showed that Islam offered no justification for terrorism.

Guenter Piening, the minister for integration in the Berlin city state, said that move showed a clear refusal on the part of Muslims to allow Islam to become scapegoats for terrorism.

Local German politicians and Christian church leaders also joined the ceremony.

Germany is home to about 3.4 million Muslims, of whom two-thirds are of Turkish origin.

Almost 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001 when hijackers took control of US airliners, slamming two into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York, causing them to collapse.

Another plane hit the Pentagon, the US military headquarters building near Washington, and the fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Three of the hijackers lived for years as students in the northern German port city of Hamburg.

Vigils, Prayers

The prayers came as the United States was bracing to mark the 5th anniversary of the terrorist attacks with vigils and prayers across the country.

Families of the victims are to observe a silent remembrance on Monday, September 11, to mark the attacks.

Husbands, wives and partners of those who perished will read a roll call of the dead, pausing to mark the moments the planes hit and when the towers collapsed in choking clouds of rubble.

Families will also lay flowers in the footprint of the Twin Towers.

The anniversary is to be marked across the country and commemorations are already dominating air time.

"The events of September 11, 2001, will always be a defining moment in our history," US President George W. Bush said ahead of the commemoration.

"We hold the victims and their families in our hearts, and we lift them up in our prayers."

Bush is scheduled to visit the three sites hit by the hijacked planes, starting with a wreath-laying at Ground Zero Sunday, September 10.

He will also observe the moment of silence in New York before attending a ceremony outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where the third jet crashed.

In the afternoon he is to attend a further ceremony at the Pentagon, where a fourth hijacked airliner crashed, killing 184 people.

Church bells across the United States will also toll and the stock exchange will observe five minutes of silence before the markets open.

As evening falls, two giant shafts of light will be beamed skywards where the Twin Towers once stood.

In Washington, the Pentagon Memorial and the Americas Heroes Memorial are to open to the public Saturday for only the second time since the attacks, with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld hosting commemorations Monday.