Bells will toll in New York at the time the Twin Towers were struck The US is preparing to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York amid controversy over the pastor who has threatened to burn the Koran.
US President Barack Obama has appealed for calm as the city prepares.
The pastor, Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida, has arrived in New York where he hopes to meet a leading imam.
His plan to burn the Muslim holy book has caused international outrage, but Mr Jones says his plans have been put on hold.
Mr Jones has instead travelled to New York where he wants to meet the imam at the head of a project to build an Islamic community centre and mosque near Ground Zero.
During the official commemoration ceremony at Ground Zero the names of all the people who died when hijacked aeroplanes crashed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001will be read out.
The US Vice President, Joe Biden, will attend the anniversary ceremony in Lower Manhattan.
Houses of worship across the city have been asked to toll their bells at 0846 (1336 GMT), the moment the first hijacked plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Centre.
Meanwhile, protests have are scheduled for when the commemoration ends.
“While the president will be criticised for speaking out, not answering the questions clearly would be unthinkable”
Rallies for and against a proposed Islamic community centre near Ground Zero will be held.
Some of the families of people who died in the attacks say that it is insensitive to build a mosque so close to the site.
Pastor Jones has placed himself at the centre of the drama, after claiming he would call off his plan to burn the Koran if the planned mosque and community centre was moved.
He says he received assurances delivered by a local Florida imam that this would be the case.
But then the New York planners of the Islamic community centre said they had not spoken to the Florida imam and would not be moving their project.
Mr Jones now says he wants to clarify the issue.
Mr Jones is the pastor of the tiny and previously little-known Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida and the author of a book entitled Islam is of the Devil.
He planned to stage an International Burn a Koran Day on Saturday, the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on New York, saying the book was “evil”.
On Thursday, he said he was calling off the protest after the group behind a controversial Islamic cultural centre due to be built near Ground Zero agreed to relocate it.
The group has denied making such a deal with Mr Jones, who later said he was only putting the burning on hold until he had met the centre’s organisers.
Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the centre, said on Friday that he was “prepared to consider meeting with anyone who is seriously committed to pursuing peace” but added that he had no current plans to meet Mr Jones.
In his remarks, Mr Obama denied that his administration’s intervention in the affair had elevated it to greater prominence.
The FBI had visited Mr Jones to urge him to reconsider his plans and he was telephoned by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
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