Japanese mark the day Hiroshima died with prayers for victims and pledge for the future

JAPAN marked the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing yesterday with prayers for the victims of the world's first nuclear attack…

JAPAN marked the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing yesterday with prayers for the victims of the world's first nuclear attack 51 years ago and fresh vows to fight the spread of atomic weaponry.

In what has become a yearly ritual, citizens of Hiroshima and survivors of the nuclear blast joined a ceremony commemorating the exact moment when the bomb was dropped on the morning of August 6th, 1945.

After dark, Hiroshima citizens floated some 10,000 paper lanterns down rivers running through the city to console the souls of those who died.

The Prime Minister, Mr Ryutaro Hashimoto, told the gathering he would keep pushing for the adoption of a global treaty banning nuclear tests.

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"Our current priority is to seek early agreement on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty [CTBT]," he said.

More than 50,000 residents and bomb survivors gathered for the service in Hiroshima, in southern Japan, 10,000 fewer than attended the 50th anniversary commemoration last year.

City officials said that 50 years after the world's first use of atomic weaponry reduced Hiroshima to ruins and left a legacy of radiation linked disease, citizens were less inclined to dwell on the past.

"The mood here is that Hiroshima is turning away from the past to the future," said Ms Noriko Nakamura, a spokeswoman for the city.

"Humanity and nuclear arms cannot co-exist," the Mayor of Hiroshima, Mr Takashi Hiraoka, declared.

"We hope the nuclear experiments which have been conducted over 2,000 times will be ended with the agreement of the CTBT," he said in his peace declaration.

In Geneva, UN sponsored talks' bringing together 61 nations are trying to complete the CTBT text by consensus before it is sent to UN headquarters in New where it will be opened for signature in September.

In the past year, Hiroshima expressed indignation against France and China for conduct nuclear tests when the international community was working to ban them, the latest Chinese test coming only about a week before the anniversary.

India has repeatedly rejected the draft test treaty, saying it contains no commitment by nuclear powers to disarm, while China has also raised objections to certain clauses.