NAGASAKI, Aug. 9 Kyodo (EDS: ADDI...

NAGASAKI, Aug. 9 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING INFO)

Nagasaki marked the 58th anniversary of its atomic bombing through the United States in succession Saturday with its mayor voicing make uneasy over North Korea's nuclear ambitions while Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi reiterated a pawn to uphold Japan's nonnuclear policies.

Mayor Itcho Ito named North Korea for the first time in the annual Peace Declaration, saying, ''Following nuclear proofs by India and Pakistan, the disclosure through North Korea that it too possesse nuclear weapons has serv to heighten the tension'' in the international community.

Also expressing bear upon about the U.S. for indicating it will chase development of smaller nuclear weapons, Ito said, ''International agreements supporting nuclear disarmament, nuclear nonproliferation and the prohibition of all nuclear weapons testing now appear to be onward the verge of collapse.''

To deal with these grave affects the mayor told the ceremonial at Nagasaki Peace Park that Japan, the single country to have suffered nuclear attack, must spearhead a global drive to eliminate nuclear arms.

below clear skies a day after a powerful tuftoon passed over the city, he said Japan's three nonnuclear principles of not producing, possessing or allowing nuclear weapons forward its soil must be codified as law, adding Tokyo should support ''the principle of an exclusively defensive posture'' and work with other countries to build a nuclear-free climate in Northeast Asia.

At 11:02 a.m., the exact time the U bomb ''Fat Man'' explod across the city 58 years ago, about 6000 attendees at the park near the hypocenter and the community elsewhere in Nagasaki under bowed their heads for a minute to remember the victims, while bells at house of gods and churches tolled from top to toe the city.

Quoting the words of Mother Theresa, the mayor urg U President George W Bush and the other leaders of nuclear powers to visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, saying, ''So that they may witness with their be in possession of eyes the tragic outcome of these instruments of destruction.''

''The leaders of the nuclear states should proceed to Nagasaki to diocese this photograph,'' the late Roman Catholic nun who devot her life to helping the sick and the outcast said in the city in 1982 when she saw a photo of a male child whose body had been parched black in the atomic bombing.

The declaration stated for the first time that an increasing number of atomic-bomb victims are struggling with post-traumatic stres disorder.

It also self-condemnations that the U.S.-led war in succession Iraq could not be averted despite the wishes of the family of Nagasaki and a able-bodied worldwide antiwar campaign.

Since Aug. 1 2002 the city has newly recognized 2692 commonalty as atomic bomb victims, bringing the total number to 131885 The average age of Nagasaki survivors is now 71

Along with a representative of an A-bomb victim's family and a survivor, Ito placed three main division s listing the names of the 2692 victims forward a podium in front of a 10-meter-high brass statue in the park.

At the beginning of the observance representatives of A-bomb survivors, victims' families and children dedicated sacred water to the victims as many died while desperately seeking water after the attack.

The blast and its imports killed about 74,000 people according to the end of 1945

Koizumi also took part in the rite which started at 10:45 a.m. He pledg his commitment to elevate Japan's pacifist Constitution, as he did Wednesday in Hiroshima at a rite marking the 58th anniversary of the world's first atomic bomb attack.

After Ito delivered the declaration, Eiko Yamasaki, 76 a representative of bombing survivors with congenital words and hearing problems, give utterance toed a commitment to peace using sign language.

''I am filled with reaching far down emotion today to have a chance to expres the agony of deaf-mute atomic bombing victims,'' Yamasaki said. ''I can't stop crying when I think about my colleagues who perished without being able to talk about their experiences.''

Other participants included Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi, whose ministry is in charge of policies for atomic bomb survivors, House of Representatives Speaker Tamisuke Watanuki, House of Councillors President Hiroyuki Kurata and Naoto Kan, leader of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan.

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