Washington: The first US atomic bombing of World War Two occurred in Hiroshima, and twenty arms control advocates have urged President Joe Biden to use the G7 summit there next month to reaffirm the US' commitment to nuclear disarmament and readiness for talks with Russia and China on the subject.

Several former senior US arms control officials are among the advocates. They made their case in a letter to Biden on Wednesday that was not made public but was examined by Reuters.

They wrote to Biden that the meeting in Japan from May 19 to 21 "creates a historic opportunity for you to acknowledge the horrors of nuclear war," advance the cause of nuclear disarmament, and commit to "concrete steps to prevent a new arms race."

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An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by the White House.

The appeal comes in the wake of growing worries about the suspension of New START, the most recent agreement between the US and Russia to limit nuclear weapons, China's growing nuclear arsenal, and Tehran's stepped-up uranium enrichment in the wake of Washington's 2018 rejection of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

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The letter demanded that Biden speak at the G7 summit and acknowledge the "long-lasting human suffering" brought on by the 1945 US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the "catastrophic devastation" that nuclear war would bring about "on a global scale."

The signatories recommended that Biden reaffirm his willingness to speak with Russia about unfreezing New START, his concerns about China's nuclear buildup, and his invitation to Beijing for a dialogue "at any level" on lowering the possibility of a calculation error.

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In addition, they advised him to "create the conditions for progress on disarmament and head off a new arms race" by pleading with China, Britain, and France to put a freeze on their nuclear arsenals as long as the United States and Russia uphold the New START stockpile limits.