Speaking to reporters after attending the 58th anniversary memorial service for the victims of the Hiroshima atomic bombing, Koizumi said he would press the abduction issue at upcoming six-nation talks over North Korean nuclear crisis.

"At the six-nation talks, obviously, nuclear weapons will be the focus, but for Japan, the abduction issue is just as important," he said.

"We will naturally have close cooperation with the United States and South Korea, but we must make efforts to have China and Russia understand our position as well," he said.

Last week, North Korea said it had accepted six-way talks to include North and South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States to end the nuclear crisis that began in October last year.

Washington had accused the Stalinist state of reneging on a 1994 bilateral nuclear freeze accord by running a clandestine nuclear programme based on enriched uranium.

Some 40,000 people attended the 45-minute morning memorial ceremony at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park, a city official said.

This year, 5,050 names were added to the list of victims who died immediately or in the aftermath of the August 6, 1945 bombing, bringing the total to 231,920, an official said.

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