"The memories of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are etched in the minds of the world, and I would be honoured to have the opportunity to visit those cities at some point during my presidency," Obama said in an exclusive interview.

Obama would be the first US president in office to visit the Japanese cities, which the United States attacked with atomic bombs in the final days of World War II, forcing Japan's surrender.

In Hiroshima, more than 140,000 people were killed instantly or died in the days and weeks after the August 6, 1945 attack.

Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped, killing more than 70,000 people in Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on August 15, ending World War II.

The nation has since been officially pacifist, while also becoming one of the United States' closest allies, now hosting some 47,000 US troops.

While no sitting US president has visited Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Jimmy Carter went to the Hiroshima memorial after leaving office and Richard Nixon as a private citizen between his terms as vice president and president.

Last month the US ambassador to Japan, John Roos, visited Hiroshima, following a similar trip by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last year.

The US president, who will visit Japan on Friday and Saturday as part of an Asia tour, has promoted the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons.

Obama said in a speech in Prague this year that the United States has "a moral responsibility" to work toward the eventual abolition of nuclear weapons.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki have repeatedly asked that Obama visit the cities, but the US president told Japan's national broadcaster that "unfortunately I can't visit this time because my schedule was so compressed."

Survivors of the atomic bombings welcomed Obama's plan for a later visit.

"I want (Obama) to visit us as soon as possible," Sunao Tsuboi, head of a group of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima, told NHK.

"We don't need his apologies or such," Tsuboi said.

"For us it's good enough to see a man who has influence in the world saying that it was wrong to use atomic bombs."

The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki also welcomed Obama's remarks.

"We are confident the historic visit would be a big step toward creating a better future and the spirit of mediation shown by the atomic bomb survivors would light the road," they said in a joint statement.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.