AFP - US President Barack Obama is willing to visit the nuclear-bombed cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki while in office but won't go there during a Japan trip this week, he said in an NHK TV interview Tuesday.

"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 become 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, killing over 200,000 people and leading to Japan's surrender.

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

News of Obama's intention to visit the site comes after a statement in which he said a US military bases pact with Japan, now under review by a new government in Tokyo, serves Japan's interest and will continue. Related article: Obama says US bases in Japan in country's interests

Obama said he understood that the new centre-left government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, which took power in September after decades of conservative rule, wanted to review aspects of their security alliance.

"Prime Minister Hatoyama was leading a movement of change in Japan that really was unprecedented. It was a political earthquake there," Obama told broadcaster NHK in an interview ahead of his Tokyo visit this week.