TOKYO, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet)-- Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi Akiba voiced serious concern Friday over what he called the United States egocentric worldview and moves in Japan to revise the country's pacifist constitution.

    "The egocentric worldview of the US government is reaching extremes," Akiba said in the Peace Declaration at a memorial service marking the 59th anniversary of the US atomic bombing of the western Japanese city.

    "Ignoring the United Nations and...international law, the United States has resumed research to make nuclear weapons smallerand more usable," Akiba was quoted by Kyodo News.

    An estimated 45,000 people attended the ceremony, which began Friday morning in the city's Peace Memorial Park. Hiroshima was devastated in the world's first nuclear attack on August 6, 1945, during the closing days of World War II.

    "The Japanese government, as our representative, should defend the peace Constitution, of which all Japanese should be proud, andwork diligently to rectify the trend toward open acceptance of warand nuclear weapons that is increasingly prevalent at home and abroad," Akiba said.

    According to Kyodo, Akiba appeared to want to stir up debate onthe issue of revising the Constitution as senior lawmakers in bothJapan's governing and opposition coalitions favor the revision.

    Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, speaking after Akiba,vowed to maintain the Constitution and Japan's three avowed principles of not producing, possessing, or allowing nuclear weapons on its soil.

    "We will press for moves for nuclear disarmament and nonproliferation," Koizumi was quoted as saying at the memorial event.

    Article 9 of Japan's Constitution stipulates that the Japanese people "forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."

    Hiroshima Mayor Akiba is a former House of Representatives member of the opposition Social Democratic Party, which opposes revising the Constitution and Japan's dispatch of troops to Iraq.

    Last month, US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage reportedly said that the Article 9 hinders the Japan-US alliance. He apparently backtracked later as the remark drew strong criticism from Japanese lawmakers.

    The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and its aftereffects killed an estimated 140,000 people by the end of 1945.

    This year, the names of 5,142 more people the city has recognized as atomic-bomb victims since August 6 last year were added to a memorial arch, bringing the total to 237,062.

    Nagasaki, another Japanese city which suffered from the US atomic bombing at the end of World War II, is to hold a similar memorial ceremony next Monday. Enditem

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