By Shinya Ajima

HIROSHIMA, Aug. 6 Kyodo, Hiroshima is marking the 59th anniversary Friday of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of the city with its mayor expected to criticize the United States over its nuclear policies and moves in Japan to revise the country's pacifist Constitution.

In his annual peace declaration, Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba is expected to slam the United States for endangering the global nuclear nonproliferation regime by calling for more research into smaller and more usable nuclear weapons.

An estimated 40,000 people are expected to attend the ceremony that will start at 8 a.m. at the Peace Memorial Park in the downtown part of the western Japan city that was devastated in the world's first nuclear attack Aug. 6, 1945, three days before the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will attend the ceremony.

Akiba will call on the U.S. government to adhere to international treaties and demand that it lead efforts by nuclear powers to work toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons.

He is also expected to demand that the Japanese government reject moves to revise the war-renouncing Constitution.

The mayor is a former House of Representatives member of the Social Democratic Party, which is against revision of the Constitution as well as Japan's dispatch of troops to Iraq for reconstruction work there after the U.S.-led war on the country.

Akiba appears willing to take on Koizumi and senior Liberal Democratic Party politicians over their learning toward supporting revision of the Constitution.

The anniversary comes as concerns over nuclear issues have intensified globally. Multilateral efforts are under way to deal with North Korea's nuclear ambitions, while Iran has come under pressure from the international community to allow inspections of nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.

While being worried by the United States seeking to develop smaller nuclear weapons, Hiroshima will state its hope for success of the 2005 Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Among those attending the ceremony are Pakistani Ambassador to Japan Kamran Niaz and Russian Ambassador to Japan Alexander Losyukov.

U.N. Undersecretary General Nobuyasu Abe is also attending on behalf of U.N. chief Kofi Annan.

The city government of Hiroshima had asked seven nuclear nations -- Britain, China, France, India, Pakistan, Russia and the United States -- as well North Korea to send government delegates to the ceremony, but only Pakistan and Russia accepted.

The wartime U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftereffects killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of 1945.

This year, the names of 5,142 more people recognized as atomic-bomb victims by the city since Aug. 6 last year will be added to a memorial arch, bringing the total to 237,062.

2004-08-06 07:00:18JST