The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons in the world for the sake of human survival.  

The 60th anniversary of the destruction of Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki by nuclear bombs demonstrated the importance of eliminating nuclear arms, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said at an event in Vienna to mark the anniversaries of the bombings.

"The best protection against nuclear weapons, and the only way to prevent future Hiroshimas and Nagasakis, is to bring about an end to all nuclear weapons," said ElBaradei.

Saying that a world without nuclear weapons remains "a far-off goal," he noted that there are about 30,000 nuclear warheads across the world and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has not entered into force.

"We should remain humbled by what we have learned from the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We cannot allow sixty years to soften our memories of how devastating such weapons are," said ElBaradei.

ElBaradei called on the international community to renew the promise to "spare no effort to work collectively to reduce and eliminate nuclear weapons."

The US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6,1945, killing about 140,000 people within a few months of the bombing. Three days later, it dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing another 80,000.

Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, ending World War II.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2005)