Nobel committee seeks worthy peace representative

OSLO, Norway -- The Nobel Peace Prize committee chose its next award winner Thursday, a selection aimed at sending hope to a world still reeling from last year's terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

The choice -- drawn from a widespread field that includes the Salvation Army, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and the U.S. Peace Corps -- will be revealed on Oct. 11. As usual, the panel offered no hint of the winner.

Committee secretary Geir Lundestad, would only say that a decision was made Thursday after a series of meetings through the year.

"We have noted in the media that there is no clear favorite," Lundestad said about speculation on the coveted prize, first awarded in 1901. A record 156 -- 117 individuals and 39 groups -- were nominated by a Feb. 1 deadline.

Many reflected the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States and their aftermath, including former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Karzai, who has sought unity in Afghanistan deeply divided by war, ethnic anger and armed rivalries after the hard-line Taliban was ousted by U.S.-led air strikes, was among the known nominees.

President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were nominated for leading the war against terrorism but were seen as unlikely winners in the wake of unpopular efforts to convince the world of the need to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"The committee isn't that crazy," said Sverre Lodgaard, director of the Norwegian Institute of International affairs.

"Impossible," said Stein Toennesson, director of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo. "The Nobel Peace Prize committee would lose all credibility in Europe."

Both said any prize to an American would probably be an indirect criticism of current U.S. policies.

"You have to think like a Norwegian," agreed Haakan Wiberg, a senior researcher at the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute in Denmark. In a recent survey, about 75 percent of the Norwegians polled opposed a new war in Iraq.

Former Sen. Sam Nunn and Sen. Richard Lugar, the architects of the decade-old campaign to safeguard the former Soviet Union's nuclear waste and its arsenal and voices of moderation in U.S. foreign policy, emerged as favorites on some lists.

"Many would see this as at least as important as going to war against Iraq: To remove the nuclear weapons and materials that could fall into the hands of terrorists. And this is very much Sept. 11-related," Lodgaard said.

Toennesson said such a prize would "send a signal to the United States endorsing a more moderate line than that of the current administration."

Giuliani and others central to the tragedy of Sept. 11 were seen as unlikely by the Norwegian media, which pointed out the prize should contribute to world peace.

American Irwin Abrams, a leading historian and author on the Nobel prizes, doubted a Nunn-Lugar award but declined to speculate further.

He said he hoped his own nominee, former President Carter would finally win for his wide-ranging peace efforts.

The Nobel Prizes, worth $1 million, are always presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of their Swedish creator Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

The prizes in physiology or medicine, literature, physics, chemistry and economics are awarded in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, while the peace prize is awarded in Oslo.

Nominations can be made by former laureates, committee members, some university professors and selected organizations. The nominations are kept secret for 50 years, although those making them often announce their choice. --------

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