Nagasaki urges US to give up nukes

Three days after the world's first atomic bombing reduced Hiroshima to ruins, a second bomb, code-named "Fat Man" after Winston Churchill, hit the hilly southern port of Nagasaki, killing more than 70,000 people.

Some 6,000 people including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi began with a minute of silent prayer at 11:02 am (0202 GMT), 60 years to the moment after the plutonium bomb was dropped on August 9, 1945.

"To the citizens of America: we understand your anger and anxiety over the memories of horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks," Nagasaki Mayor Iccho Ito told the ceremony in the city's peace park.

"Yet, is your security actually enhanced by your government's policies of maintaining 10,000 nuclear weapons, of carrying out repeated sub-critical nuclear tests, and of pursuing the development of new 'mini' nuclear weapons?" Ito asked.

"We are confident that the vast majority of you desire in your hearts the elimination of nuclear arms.