UN Secretary General António Guterres speaks during a press conference at the National Press Club in Tokyo on Aug 8, 2022. (KAZUHIRO NOGI / AFP)

TOKYO - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that the risk of nuclear confrontation had returned after decades, calling on nuclear states to commit to no first use of the weapons.

Any attack on a nuclear plant is a "suicidal thing", Guterres said, responding to reports of renewed shelling of the Zaporizhzhia facility in Ukraine, Europe's largest nuclear power plant.

Guterres called for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, adding that the International Atomic Energy Agency needed access to it

Guterres spoke at a news conference in Tokyo after attending the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony on Saturday to commemorate the 77th anniversary of the world's first atomic bombing.

He also called on Japan to halt public and private financing of coal projects as part of the country's commitments in curbing fossil fuel emissions.

International inspectors

Guterres called for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, adding that the International Atomic Energy Agency needed access to it.

"We fully support the IAEA in all their efforts in relation to create the conditions of stabilisation of the plant," Guterres said.

IAEA chief Rafael Mariano Grossi warned on Saturday that the latest attack "underlines the very real risk of a nuclear disaster".

ALSO READ: UN chief calls for nuclear weapons to be eliminated