WASHINGTON, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush marked the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Tuesday, saying that he took "full responsibility" for the federal government's initial, sluggish response to the disaster.

    "I take full responsibility for the federal government's response," Bush said at a school that was still under repair and was ready for students.

    The president said the anniversary was not an end and that the government would continue to help the hurricane-hit region to recover.

    "And so I've come back to say that we will stand with the people of southern Louisiana and southern Mississippi until the job is done," he said.

    Katrina hit New Orleans and other coastal areas on the morning of Aug. 29, 2005, killing over 1,500 people and displacing many others. At one time, some 85 percent of the city of New Orleans was under water after the levees protecting the city were breached.

    The government was "addressing what went wrong" and New Orleans would someday be "louder, brasher and better," he said.

    The Bush administration has been under constant attacks for its initial failures to prepare for, and to respond to, the disaster, which the president described in his weekly radio address last Saturday as "one of the deadliest and most costly natural disasters in American history."

    Bush has declared Aug. 29 a national day of remembrance for Katrina.

    There were about 450,000 residents in New Orleans before the storm and so far only about half of them have returned.

    The president pleaded in his speech with those residents still living elsewhere to return to New Orleans. "The people of this city have a responsibility as well. I know you love New Orleans. And New Orleans needs you. She needs people coming home," he said.

    Earlier in the day, Bush attended a memorial service at Saint Louis Cathedral, to remember the victims of the devastating storm.

    Activities were held Tuesday across the Gulf Coast region hit by Katrina, to mark the first anniversary of the disaster. Enditem