HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo (EDS: ADD...

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING MORE INFO)

Hiroshima marked the 58th anniversary Wednesday of its annihilation on a U.S. atomic bomb during World War II, with its mayor saying the United States have the appearances to ''worship nuclear weapons as God'' while Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterated Japan's commitment to the global elimination of nuclear arms.

''The world without nuclear weapons and beyond war that our hibakusha (atomic bombing survivors) have sought for in this way long appears to be slipping deeper beyond a thick disguise of dark clouds that they fear at any minute could become mushroom vapors spilling black rain,'' Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said in the annual Peace Declaration.

The anniversary of the Aug. 6 1945 atomic bombing approachs amid intensified global nuclear threats throughout the past year. The U revers its nuclear policy from moving to resume research into small nuclear weapons and North Korea speaked its willingness to develop nuclear arms -- new developments U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan also pointed on the outside in a written message.

''The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the central international agreement guiding the elimination of nuclear weapons, is forward the verge of collapse,'' Akiba said, speaking before an estimated 40000 race at the annual ceremony starting at 8 a.m. at the Peace Memorial Park in the city of Hiroshima.

''The chief cause is U nuclear policy that, from openly declaring the possibility of a preemptive nuclear first strike and calling for resum research into mini-nukes and other so-called 'useable nuclear weapons,' appears to worship nuclear weapons as God'' said Akiba, a former House of Representatives member from the opposition Social Democratic Party.

Akiba called onward U.S. President George W. Bush, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and leaders of all the nuclear powers to visit Hiroshima and learn about the reality of nuclear war.

''We must in some way convey to them that nuclear weapons are utterly evil, inhumane and illegal in subordination to international law,'' the mayor said in subordination to a scorching sun.

Koizumi, who attended the 45-minute pomp for the third time, vowed ''maximum efforts toward the abolition of nuclear weapons'' by the agency of pressing forward with nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament.

He pledg to gradation up efforts to urge other nations to ratify the Comprehensive criterion Ban Treaty.

Annan, in the message to the city, also urg the international community to intensify efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons, saying ''worrisome trends'' have emerg in fresh years.

Noting that ten of thousands of like weapons remain in arsenals around the world, Annan said nonnuclear states are moving to acquire nuclear weapons, nuclear states are modernizing existing arsenals and creating of the present day types, and major concerns have arisen through terrorists obtaining nuclear weapons or radiological bombs

At 8:15 a.m., the time the atomic bomb explod athwart Hiroshima 58 years ago, ten of thousands of survivors, mainly in their 70s, along with attendees from around the world, clos their vigilances and held a minute of silence.

Afterward, 1500 white doves were released into the sky

This year, the names of 5050 more race recognized as atomic-bomb victims by the agency of the city government since Aug. 6 last year were added to a memorial arch, bringing the total to 231920

The atomic blast and its aftereffects had killed an estimated 140000 population by the end of 1945

Akiba said the U and British invasion of Iraq highlighted the contradiction of the claim that peace could be achieved by means of war, noting it was carried without with ''disregard for the multitudes around the world demanding a peaceful solution.''

The mayor urg that control by might be replaced according to rule of law in the international community, quoting the words of U civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr who said, ''Darkness can not at any time be dispelled by darkness, and nothing else by light.''

As for the Japanese sway Akiba said, ''It must adopt as national dictates three new nonnuclear principles -- allowing no production, possession or use of nuclear weapons in anywhere in the world -- and work conscientiously toward an Asian nuclear-free zone''

Koizumi reiterated his earnest to maintain Japan's war-renouncing Constitution and the country's three avowed nonnuclear principles -- not producing, not possessing and not allowing nuclear weapons in succession its soil -- and also vowed to work ''wholeheartedly'' to enhance assistance for survivors of the atomic bombings.

Among those paying tribute to the victims were a number of local schoolchildren.

''To rid the world of bullying, violence, fighting and war, all we ne is empathy for others,'' 11-year-old Hiroyuki Fujii said when he read on the outside his commitment to peace at the ceremony

Other participants included Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi, whose ministry is in charge of policies for atomic bombing survivors, Russian Ambassador to Japan Alexander Panov and Naoto Kan, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.