Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel laureate ElBaradei backs Obama

Criticism over Obama's Nobel

Obama: Surprised, humbled by Nobel

Praise, shock at Obama's Nobel win

Reuters

PEACEMAKER: US President Barack Obama at the White House on Friday. Earlier in the day he was awarded the Nobel peace Prize.

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Barack Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize in a stunning decision that honoured the first-year US president more for promise than achievement and drew both praise and skepticism around the world.

The bestowal of one of the world's top accolades on a president less than nine months in office, who has yet to score a major foreign policy success, was greeted with gasps of astonishment from journalists at the announcement in Oslo.

Obama said he felt humbled and unworthy of being counted in the company of the "transformative figures" of history who had won the prize.

"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather an affirmation of American leadership," he said, speaking in the White House Rose Garden. "I will accept this award as a call to action."

He will donate to charity the US$1.4 million (NZ$1.92 million) cash award, a White House spokesman said.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," citing his fledgling push for nuclear disarmament and his outreach to the Muslim world.

Obama has been widely credited with improving America's global image after the eight-year presidency of George W Bush, who alienated both friends and foes with go-it-alone policies like the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.

But critics called the Nobel's committee's decision premature, given that Obama so far has made little tangible headway as he grapples with challenges ranging from the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.

The White House had no idea the Nobel announcement was coming. Obama, who got the news of the prize in a pre-dawn call from his press secretary, now also has the burden of living up to its expectations.

The first African-American to hold his country's highest office, Obama, 48, has struggled with a slew of foreign policy problems bequeathed to him by Bush, while taking a more multilateral approach than his predecessor.

Despite troubles at home including a struggling economy that have eroded his once-lofty approval ratings, the Democratic US president is still widely seen around the world as an inspirational figure.

The procedures of the Nobel Peace Prize:

- The committee does not release the names of any candidates and keeps records sealed for 50 years.

- Campaigns in favour of a particular candidate could be counterproductive, as the fiercely independent committee does not want to appear influenced by public pressure.

- The nomination deadline is eight months before the announcement, with a strictly enforced deadline of February 1.

- Those who can nominate candidates for a Nobel Peace Prize include former laureates; current and former members of the committee and their staff; members of national governments and legislatures; university professors of law, theology, social sciences, history and philosophy; leaders of peace research and foreign affairs institutes; and members of international courts of law.

- There are no provisions for revoking the prize, regardless of whether the laureate lives up to its standards.

- The prize was award posthumously only once - in 1961, to former UN Secretary-General Dag Hammerskjold, after he was killed in a plane crash in Africa. The rules were amended in 1974 to prohibit posthumous prizes.

- The prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments, not only to recognise efforts for peace, human rights and democracy after they have proven successful.