Adam Trimingham reports on the role played by New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani in the wake of the terrorist atrocities on his city.

One man more than any other helped to rally New York during its darkest hour last week through words and deeds.

While President Bush was still sheltering in his bunker, the city's mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, seemed to be everywhere in the blasted centre of Manhattan.

Risking his own life, he led people to shelter, helped organise the huge rescue operation and said the right words at the right time.

There was nothing flashy in what he said or did.

His crowded, almost chaotic appearances had no semblance of political spin about them.

But the mayor, who is nearing the end of eight years in power, managed to articulate in his quiet, sincere way, what millions of New Yorkers were thinking.

He helped spur on the rescue workers when they were feeling exhausted.

He also invoked the right spirit of defiance without creating hatred for the many Muslims in America's first city who were as appalled at the atrocity as anyone else.

Giuliani got to the top against the odds.

The grandson of Italian immigrants, he was born to a working class family in Brooklyn 57 years ago and trained as a lawyer, eventually becoming an attorney in the government under President Gerald Ford before returning to practise law in his home city.

President Ronald Reagan brought him back into office and in 1983 he became attorney for the southern district of New York, where he started a long fight against organised crime.

He spearheaded the effort to jail drug dealers, fight organised crime, break the web of corruption and prosecute white-collar criminals.

Few US attorneys in history can match his record of 4,152 convictions.

Giuliani entered the race for mayor of New York in 1989 as a Republican, losing by the closest margin in history. But in 1993, his campaign focusing on quality of life, crime, business and education made him the 107th city mayor and four years later he was re-elected by a wide margin.

As mayor, Giuliani has returned accountability to city government and improved the quality of life for all New Yorkers.

Under his leadership, overall crime is down 57 per cent and murder by 65 per cent. New York, once infamous for its dangerous streets, has been recognised by the FBI as the safest large city in America for the past five years.

Giuliani has also taken huge numbers of people off welfare and created more than $2.5 billion in tax reductions.

He has returned hundreds of millions of dollars to the private sector through an aggressive campaign to root out organised crime's influence over markets and the waste industry.

A record 450,000 new private sector jobs have been created in the past seven years and tourism has grown to record levels.

Giuliani has made great advances in health and education while also cleaning up landmark open spaces such as Times Square.

What is remarkable is that Giuliani is a Republican in a city which is normally overwhelmingly Democratic.

But to most New Yorkers, the man and his office are infinitely more important than party politics.

There are examples the other way round, such as Democrat Richard Daley who has done great things in Chicago, normally a Republican city.

Giuliani has more powers than any elected mayor in the United Kingdom would have under new proposals likely to be adopted by some towns and cities.

But he is still subject to strict checks from a 51-member council and has to win support for any budget or policy proposal.

He is also unable to stand again, despite being so popular, because the law says he must not be in office for longer than eight years.

Are there lessons for Brighton and Hove, which next month votes in a postal referendum on whether to have a directly-elected mayor?

Writer and broadcaster Simon Fanshawe, who supports the Yes for Mayor campaign, thinks so.

He frequently visits New York and said Giuliani's tough law and order policies received a rough ride at first.

But when they started to work and he cleaned up the city, public opinion swung firmly behind him and he became popular.

Mr Fanshawe said the mayor managed to create a remarkable fusion of public and private enterprise to make big improvements in New York.

He added: "Giuliani has his finger on the pulse of New York. He has shown great leadership and he knows what the people there want.

"The lesson here is about leadership.

"He has been able to galvanise New York into action with the support of the people. He has led the city and set high standards."

But Councillor Francis Tonks, who jointly chairs Allies for Democracy, said: "A civic mayor could do that and show the same sort of leadership.

"If Brighton and Hove had a tragedy of that proportion, the civic mayor would be able to rally people round and care for them in the same way."

He said the council leader would have a committee of a few people who would be able to take quick and effective decisions.

Coun Tonks, who favours a committee system as the alternative, said that for every Rudolph Giuliani, there were many America mayors in jail for fraud and corruption.

He said: "You put power in the hands of one person and it can be very dangerous. The more power there is, the greater the potential there is for corruption."