By Shinya Ajima

NAGASAKI, Aug. 9 Kyodo, Nagasaki marked the 59th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city on Monday, with its mayor set to call on Americans to oppose their government's pursuit of enhanced nuclear capabilities during his speech at an annual ceremony later in the day.

In this year's Peace Declaration, Mayor Itcho Ito will reiterate calls on the Japanese government and people around the world to eliminate nuclear arms, according to city officials. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will attend the annual ceremony.

About 20,000 people are expected to visit Nagasaki Peace Park, where the ceremony will start at 10:45 a.m.

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 western Japan city in 1945 during the closing days of World War II.

The attack came three days after the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Ito is expected to cite the opinion of the International Court of Justice, which says that using or threatening to use nuclear weapons is at odds with international law.

He will criticize the United States not only for possessing a massive nuclear arsenal, but also for attempting to develop smaller more ''usable'' nuclear weapons, the city officials said.

The Nagasaki and Hiroshima mayors, who lead Mayors for Peace, an organization of 611 mayors in 109 countries, have voiced concerns, as well as hopes, about the effective international control of nuclear weapons under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

International pressure has been mounting on nuclear powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- to take more responsibility for playing a leading role in nuclear disarmament as an NPT Review Conference is scheduled for next May at the United Nations in New York.

Multinational efforts are also under way to defuse the tension over nuclear ambitions of North Korea, which calls for security assurances, especially from the United States, and energy assistance in return for scrapping its nuclear arms programs.

Ito will call for nuclear disarmament on the Korean Peninsula to pave the way for a Northeast Asia free of nuclear weapons.

To that end, he will also urge Koizumi's government to stick with Japan's pacifist Constitution and enact into law the government's three avowed principles of not producing, possessing, or allowing nuclear weapons on its soil.

The atomic bombing of Nagasaki and its immediate aftereffects killed about 74,000 people by the end of the year.

In this year through July 30, the Nagasaki municipal government added 2,707 people to its list of A-bomb victims, bringing the total to 134,592. The average age of Nagasaki survivors is now 71.7, and Hiroshima survivors 72.2.

Survivors of the attack will be among the guests, as will Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Chikara Sakaguchi who is in charge of providing government support for the aging radiation victims.

Thousands of Japanese and foreign peace activists poured into Nagasaki to deliver their messages after holding rallies in Hiroshima, which marked the 59th anniversary of its atomic bombing on Friday.

On Monday, major antinuclear organizations will adopt declarations before wrapping up a series of annual events in Nagasaki that started earlier this month in Tokyo and Hiroshima.

2004-08-09 07:00:25JST