Monday is the 50th anniversary of the 15-megaton Bravo H-bomb blast at Bikini atoll, one of 23 nuclear tests on the island, part of the Marshall Islands archipelago just north of the equator.

Reverend Robert Edgar, the general secretary of the New York-based National Council of Churches - which represents 50 million members in 36 major churches - is here to mark the anniversary of the event which saw thousands of Marshall Islanders exposed to nuclear fallout and displaced.

They are now lobbying Washington for two billion dollars for compensation, cleanup and health care funding.

Speaking at a weekend workshop, Edgar said US church groups supported the cause of the islands for fair and just compensation for the US atomic tests.

Edgar said Marshall Islanders must be "aggressively polite" in their lobbying of Washington.

He said that with many Americans questioning their government over the grounds for the war in Iraq, there was a greater willingness on the part of the US people to hear the story of Marshall Islands nuclear survivors.

"Many people are questioning the actions of the US government and will be more receptive to hearing the Bravo story," he said.

"But I will say 'Bravo' when the US government agrees to fully compensate the people and clean up their islands."

Washington provided 270 million dollars in compensation and health care programs that ended last year.

The Marshall Islands government says this compensation was woefully inadequate and has not satisfied the US government's obligation to return islanders safely to nuclear test-affected islands, to provide long-term health care programs and adequate compensation for hardships suffered.

James Winkler, Washington-based general secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, told Marshall Islanders at the workshop that his church opposes the "pre-emptive war strategy" of the US government.

He described Marshall Islands fallout survivors as "victims of this pre-emptive war policy".

Bikini Islander Johnny Johnson said "the United States needs to pay in full for what it did to us and return us to our islands to live freely as God provided."

Bikini Islanders are still living in exile 58 years after they were first moved by the US Navy in 1946 to make way for the first post-World War II atomic tests.

"The war in Iraq just happened yesterday, and the United States is providing billions of dollars," Johnson said.

"What the US did to us was 50 years ago. They still owe us and should have taken care of us by now."

Edgar was speaking Saturday to a workshop in Majuro sponsored by the community group "ERUB", which represents the initials of the four primary nuclear test-affected atolls of Enewetak, Rongelap, Utrik and Bikini, but also is a Marshallese language word meaning "damaged" or "ruined."

The US conducted 67 tests in the Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958.

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