(NME) -- U2 have denied media reports that they were to play a massive show in NEW YORK TIMES SQUARE, just days before the official anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

According to the New York Post, the show, in front of several hundred thousand people, was being planned for September 5 and is designed, the mayor's office said, to demonstrate the city's resurgence since the Twin Towers strikes.

However, a spokesperson for the Irish supergroup said this morning that they had heard nothing of the event and first became aware of it when they read it in the Post.

The show is will also mark the official kick-off of the NFL season in the States, it is reported, and be followed by a match between the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers in the Jersey Meadowlands stadium.