Senji Yamaguchi, who suffered horrific scars from the Nagasaki attack and went on to become a campaigner against nuclear weapons, and a survivors' organization he helped found have been nominated for the prize to be announced Friday.

Yamaguchi, who turned 75 on Monday and has lived in a Nagasaki nursing home for the past two years, said the prestigious award would boost the entire nuclear disarmament movement.

"This is a problem that we can't solve as individuals," Yamaguchi told AFP by telephone.

"I want to say that the US needs to make more efforts to abolish nuclear arms," he said.

Yamaguchi said the Nobel Peace Prize would also be a tribute to all victims of nuclear attacks, known in Japanese as "hibakusha," whose ranks are getting smaller each year.

"Many people say this year is special because it's the 60th anniversary, but hibakusha have struggled throughout the years and we'll continue struggling," he said.

"Last year alone, as many as 7,300 hibakusha died," added Yamaguchi, who doubts he would be physically able to travel abroad again, even to collect the Nobel prize.

Yamaguchi was a 14-year-old schoolboy forced to work at a Mitsubishi arms factory in Nagasaki when a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on the city on August 9, 1945, killing 70,000 people, most of whom melted or burned to death instantly.

The attack came just three days after the world's first nuclear bombing on Hiroshima in which another 140,000 people died.

Yamaguchi, who had been digging with his shirt off, suffered massive radiation burns over the right side of his chest, back and face, a gruesome sight captured in a photograph.

With his face permanently disfigured from the radiation, Yamaguchi became an emblematic leader of the hibakusha community. He has toured across the world since 1961 lecturing against nuclear weapons and testified at a UN conference on arms reduction in 1982.

In 1956, Yamaguchi helped form Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, which was formed by survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks.

The group has sent Yamaguchi and other members abroad to lobby to abolish nuclear weapons and share atomic-bomb experiences and has demanded the Japanese government provide compensation for nuclear bomb victims.

The group was part of the driving force that brought about the world's nuclear-weapons free zones, in which governments declare themselves out of bounds for atomic arsenals.

"It's been 60 years, and we're getting old. We won't be able to stay active in this movement as much as we have," said Nihon Hidankyo's secretary general Terumi Tanaka, who suffered the Nagasaki attack.

"There're still many hibakusha who hesitate to talk about their experiences. Talking about such experiences is painful itself. The peace prize would encourage them to speak up," he added.

The organization was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times previously.

In addition to this year being the 60th anniversary of the attacks, Nobel watchers say the anti-nuclear movement may be chosen due to sagging global efforts to abolish atomic weapons.

The once-in-five-year conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was snagged by problems this year, with the United States pushing for a focus on the new era of terrorism and "rogue" states, and some non-aligned nations stressing the need for progress on disarmament.

The conference members in the end failed to reach an agreement.

A record 199 individuals and organizations were nominated for the prize this year. The list of possible laureates is said to include Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the UN nuclear watchdog, along with Irish U2 rock star Bono, the late pope John Paul II and former US secretary of state Colin Powell.

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