Hiroshima Mayor slams 'egocentric' US

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi meanwhile pledged at a ceremony here to mark the August 6, 1945 World War II bombing by the United States that Japan would stick to its post-1945 war-renouncing constitution.

"The egocentric world view of the US government is reaching extremes," mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said at the ceremony held against the backdrop of the Atomic Bomb Dome, the preserved ruins of one of the few buildings not flattened by the blast.

"Ignoring the United Nations and its foundation of international law, the United States has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smaller and more usable," the mayor told 45,000 people at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

Meanwhile, a chain of violence and retaliation around the world showed no sign of ending, he said.

"Reliance on violence-amplifying terror and North Korea, among others, buying into the worthless policy of 'nuclear insurance' are salient symbols of our times," he said.

As the clock clicked onto 8:15 am (2315 GMT Thursday), the exact time the United States dropped the bomb code-named "Little Boy", those at the ceremony bowed their heads for a minute's silence in memory of victims of the attack.

Around 140,000 people -- almost half the city's population of the time -- died immediately or in the months after the dropping of the 20 kiloton atomic bomb, from radiation injuries or horrific burns.

During Friday's ceremony officials added to the existing toll the names of 5,142 atomic bomb suffers who died or were confirmed dead during the past year.