Frankfurt, Germany ? Afghan President Hamid Karzai, en route to the United States for ceremonies commemorating the Sept. 11 attacks, pledged Sunday to persevere in fighting terrorism.

Al-Qaida fighters and Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers who gave them shelter “are defeated as a movement, but continue to act as individuals,” Karzai said during a stopover in Germany. “Of course they will try some desperate acts.”

“We will continue to fight against terrorism,” Karzai said before he and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer met at a U.S. air base adjacent to Frankfurt international airport.

Karzai was to meet President Bush and address the U.N. General Assembly during his five-day visit to New York.

Presidential spokesman Said Fazel Akbar said Karzai would visit ground zero at the World Trade Center and “express his condolences to the American people” over the terrorist attacks.

The trip to the United States comes three days after Karzai survived an assassination attempt in the southern city of Kandahar.

Karzai’s U.S. bodyguards killed the gunman, an Afghan security guard and an Afghan teenager who deflected the gunman’s aim.

U.S. troops took over security for Karzai after the July 6 assassination of Afghan Vice President Abdul Qadir.

The visit is Karzai’s first to the United States since he came to power at the head of an interim government in June.

Foreign Minister Abdullah is due to join Karzai today in New York, Akbar said.

Karzai leaves behind a tense capital, Kabul, where security was stepped up following a car bombing Thursday, just hours before the attempt on Karzai’s life.

At least 30 people were killed and more than 160 injured in the explosion, in the worst violence in the capital since the Taliban fell.

Authorities said they had been bracing for possible terrorist violence ahead of Sept. 11 and in advance of the Sept. 9, 2001, assassination of Ahmed Shah Massood, the commander of the northern alliance who was killed by suicide bombers posing as journalists.