"The end of this trial represents the end of this case, but not an end to the fight against terror," Bush said. "And we can be confident. Our cause is right, and the outcome is certain: Justice will be served. Evil will not have the final say."

Former New York

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who led the city through the September 11 attacks and their aftermath and testified at the trial, said on MSNBC's "Hardball" program, "I would have preferred to see the death penalty, but I kind of stand in awe of how our legal system works that it can come to a result like this."

Jim Cohen, a professor at Fordham Law School in New York, said the jury was looking for a just resolution. "This is not sympathy for Moussaoui. It's the penalty they thought most of the victims wanted, and it's the penalty they thought would be worse for him."

Family members of victims, some of whom sat in the courtroom as the verdict was read, said they were pleased with the sentence.

"He will be in jail for the rest of his life, which is exactly what this man deserves," said Carie Lemack, whose mother died on one of the airplanes that was crashed into New York's World Trade Center.

"He's an al Qaeda wannabe and he does not deserve any credit for 9/11 because he was not part of it, and I am so glad the jury recognized that."

Moussaoui sat praying silently as Brinkema read the verdict. He appeared to relax after she said the jurors did not unanimously agree a sentence of death should be imposed.

The jury did not find Moussaoui's actions resulted in the deaths of about 3,000 people on September 11 -- a central part of the government's demand for the death penalty.

Three of the 12 jurors found that Moussaoui's role in the 9/11 operation, if any, was minor, Brinkema said.

None of the jurors found Moussaoui's execution might create a martyr for extreme Muslim fundamentalists and al Qaeda in particular.

Anti-death penalty activists said the case showed U.S. juries were less willing to impose capital punishment than in the past, even in a case of such wrenching emotion. The number of death penalties imposed by juries has fallen dramatically since the late 1990s.

Moussaoui was arrested three weeks before the September 11 attacks, in which hijackers rammed commercial airliners into buildings in New York and outside Washington. A fourth plane went down in a Pennsylvania field.

During testimony in the sentencing trial, Moussaoui said he was meant to pilot a fifth airplane into the White House -- a contradiction of his earlier claims he was meant to be part of a second wave of attacks.