No apology for A-bomb on Hiroshima visit

Barack Obama will not apologise for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima when he this week becomes the first sitting US president to visit the city, he told Japanese television.

The comments are the clearest yet from his administration over an issue that raises hackles in the United States and has been the subject of heated debate for decades.

Asked if an apology would be included in remarks he plans to make, he said: "No, because I think that it's important to recognise that in the midst of war, leaders make all kinds of decisions.

"It's a job of historians to ask questions and examine them, but I know as somebody who has now sat in this position for the last seven and a half years, that every leader makes very difficult decisions, particularly during war time."

American airmen launched the world's first atomic strike on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, causing the deaths of about 140,000 people.

"My purpose is not to simply revisit the past, but to affirm that innocent people die in a war, on all sides, that we should do everything we can to try to promote peace and dialogue around the world, that we should continue to strive for a world without nuclear weapons," Obama said in the interview with NHK, aired Sunday.