UNITED NATIONS, Aug 6: Secretary General Kofi Annan warned on Saturday that without concerted action, the world faced a “cascade of nuclear proliferation” 60 years after the first atomic bombing in Hiroshima.

In a message on the commemoration of 60 anniversary of Hiroshima bombing Mr Annan said that the global community must boost its efforts to combat the ever-increasing threats of nuclear dangers, especially after a breakdown it talks at the Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in May in New York.

“We must redouble our efforts in working toward a world free of nuclear dangers, and ultimately, of nuclear weapons”, Annan said.

Mr Annan said the world’s first atomic bombing on Hiroshima on August. 6, 1945, and three days later, on Nagasaki, “awakened the world to the horrors of nuclear weapons” and prompted the world to work toward nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.

At the same time, Mr Annan pointed out that the world has made little progress in addressing new challenges such as weapons falling into the hands of terrorists and other non state actors, and faces the “real threat” of nuclear proliferation.

“Revelations of clandestine networks trafficking in nuclear materials and technology have exposed a major loophole in the non-proliferation regime,” he said.

As a way to break the impasse, the UN chief urged the world leaders to make use of the United Nations for the 2005 World Summit to be held next month to shatter the “deadlock on the most pressing challenges in nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament.”