By Shinya Ajima

NAGASAKI, Aug. 8 Kyodo, Nagasaki will mark the 59th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city on Monday with a call on Americans to oppose their government's pursuit of enhanced nuclear capabilities, city officials said Sunday.

Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito plans to make the call in a Peace Declaration to be issued Monday at a memorial service where he will also reiterate calls on the Japanese government and people around the world to abolish nuclear arms.

The service, to be held at Nagasaki Peace Park, will be attended by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other government dignitaries.

Ito is expected to cite the opinion of the International Court of Justice that threats with or uses of nuclear weapons are generally at odds with international law.

He will hit out at the U.S. not only for possessing its huge nuclear arsenal but also for attempting to develop smaller and more usable nuclear weapons, according to Nagasaki officials.

On North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Ito will call for nuclear disarmament on the Korean Peninsula to pave the way for a Northeast Asia free of nuclear weapons.

He will also urge Koizumi to uphold Japan's pacifist Constitution and enact into law the government's three non-nuclear principles -- not producing, possessing, or allowing nuclear weapons on its soil.

The one-hour memorial service at Nagasaki Peace Park will start at 10:45 a.m. and a moment of silence will be observed at 11:02 a.m., the time when a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the city. The attack came three days after the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

The bombing and its immediate radioactive aftereffects killed an estimated 74,000 people in Nagasaki by the end of the year.

According to the Nagasaki government, death through long-term radioactive aftereffects has raised the total toll to 134,592, including 2,707 people added to the casualties list in the year through July 30.

Survivors of the atomic bombing -- their average age now at 71.7 -- will be among the guests, as will Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi. His ministry is tasked with providing government support for the aging radiation victims.

Thousands of Japanese and foreign peace activists are pouring into Nagasaki to deliver their messages after visiting Hiroshima.

Major anti-nuclear organizations are scheduled to adopt declarations and wrap up a series of annual events in Nagasaki that started earlier this month in Tokyo and Hiroshima.

2004-08-08 10:18:37JST