In pictures: Nagasaki A-bomb remembered

Nagasaki's mayor has attacked the lack of progress in eliminating nuclear weapons.

Marking the 56th anniversary of the US attack on his city Mayor Itcho Ito said despite agreements to eliminate nuclear arsenals, 30,000 warheads remain and the nuclear threat is now on the point of expanding into space.

He also accused "one superpower" of "insinuating" it may renege on international commitments on nuclear disarmament.

About 70,000 people died on the morning of 9 August 1945 when a US plane dropped a nuclear bomb named "Fat Man" on Nagasaki

Several thousand people including Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi attended a ceremony at the city's Peace Park

Across the city many observed a minute's silence and prayed as a bell rang out and an air-raid siren sounded

Candles were also lit in remembrance

Nagasaki's mayor made a plea that the city should "forever remain the last place to have suffered nuclear attack"