HIGHLIGHTS: 2001 Deadliest Year for Terrorism||FBI Warns New York City of Attacks Against Landmarks Including Statue of Liberty||No Final Judgment on Palestinian National Authority as Financier of "Terror" Against Israel|| According to Report, Iran World's Most Active Sponsor of Terror ||STORY: The US state Department has issued its annual report on terrorism to Congress while at the same time, the FBI Tuesday warned New York City officials of pending terrorist attacks against the city's landmarks including the statue of liberty. (Read photo caption)

Terrorists killed more than 3,500 people, 90 percent of them in the September 11 attacks, in 2001, making it the deadliest year ever in the annals of extremist violence, according to the US State Department.

In its annual "Patterns of Global Terrorism" report, the department said the threat from terrorism remained high and called on the nations of the world to redouble their efforts to combat extremist violence.

Despite a decrease in the number of attacks from 2000, it said 3,547 people were killed in international terrorist incidents in 2001 -- the highest one-year death toll ever recorded, all due to September 11 kamikaze strikes on US targets.

Terrorists struck 346 times around the world in 2001, down from 426 times in 2000 but only 409 people were killed last year, according to the report

"IRAN WORLD'S MOST ACTIVE SPONSOR OF TERROR," REPORT CLAIMS

According to the report, Iran is the world's most active sponsor of terror as the Islamic state intensified support for Palestinian Resistance groups fighting Israeli occupation.

On the other hand, Libya and Sudan were taking steps "to get out of the terrorism business" and North Korea and Syria took smaller steps in that direction, but continued to host militant groups, the department said in its annual report to Congress.

The report named seven states as sponsors of terror, including Cuba and Iraq, the latter concentrating its terror on opponents of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but also providing bases for so-called anti-Israel terror groups.

Releasing the 22nd annual report, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "Terrorists are trying every way they can to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, whether radiological, chemical, biological or nuclear."

Francis X. Taylor, coordinator of the department's Office to Counter Terrorism, said the State Department had no reason to question the validity of documents provided by Israel that seek to link Yasser Arafat and other senior Palestinian officials to the financing of terror attacks on Israel.

"We have not been able to make a final judgment who and how far up in the Palestinian Authority" may have been involved, Taylor said. But he said of Arafat, "We believe he can do much more to control those activities."

At the same time, Taylor said Jewish extremists accused in the report of attacking Palestinian civilians were as much terrorists as Palestinian suicide bombers. The report, without elaboration, accuses Israel of destroying the Palestinian Authority's security apparatus, an allegation Israel disputes.

The report also noted that Syria and Lebanon cooperated with the United States in the fight against al-Qaida, but refused to recognize other groups that conduct terrorism against Israel, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as terrorists.

FBI WARNS NEW YORK

The FBI meanwhile warned New York City officials it had received uncorroborated information that terrorists have made threats against the city and some of its landmarks, including the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

A law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said the information came from an unidentified detainee who spoke with the FBI. The threat did not mention any date or time for a possible attack.

The warning came one day before the start of Fleet Week, an annual maritime celebration expected to draw 6,000 naval personnel to the city through the Memorial Day holiday weekend.

It also comes about a week before the city plans to end search and recovery work at the site of the World Trade Center, where more than 2,800 people died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

PHOTO CAPTION

A police van keeps watch as vehicles make their way across the Brooklyn Bridge Tuesday, May 21, 2002, in New York. The FBI warned city officials Tuesday that it had received uncorroborated information that terrorists had made threats against the city, police said. Security was increased around monuments and landmarks, including the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, after the warning was relayed to New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
- May 21 6:46 PM ET