Nobel Prize 'will help tackle nuclear weapons'

OSLO - The UN nuclear watchdog and its head Mohamed ElBaradei, who clashed with Washington over Iraq, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for fighting the spread of nuclear weapons. 

In Vienna, ElBaradei said the $1.3 million Nobel award, widely viewed as the world's top accolade, would give him and the agency he has led since 1997 a much needed "shot in the arm" to tackle nuclear crises in Iran and North Korea. 

Many governments, including Washington, publicly praised the award. Pyongyang and Tehran were silent.  

The Nobel Committee praised the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and ElBaradei, a 63-year-old Egyptian, for their battle to prevent states and terrorists from acquiring the atom bomb, and to ensure safe civilian use of nuclear energy.  

ElBaradei said he had been sure someone else had won because he did not receive a traditional advance telephone call from the Committee, which has been worried by media leaks. He learnt of the prize at home while watching television with his wife, Aida.  

He said he jumped to his feet and hugged and kissed her in celebration. The Vienna-based IAEA had been a favourite from a list of 199 Nobel candidates in a year marking 60 years since the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  

And the five-member Nobel Committee expressed hope that the award would spur work to outlaw atomic weapons. 

"At a time when disarmament efforts appear deadlocked, when there is a danger that nuclear arms will spread both to states and to terrorist groups, and when nuclear power again appears to be playing an increasingly significant role, IAEA's work is of incalculable importance," it said in a statement.  

Set up in 1957, the IAEA polices a UN nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), conducting inspections to ensure that nuclear facilities and materials intended for peaceful purposes cannot be diverted to produce weapons.  

Despite past differences over Iraq's weapons, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned to congratulate ElBaradei and plaudits came from world leaders including Britain's Tony Blair and France's Jacques Chirac, who said he was "delighted".  

The United States played down suggestions that the award was a slap at Washington, which initially opposed ElBaradei's reappointment to a third four-year term this year because of fears he was too lenient on Iran.  

Asked if the award was a rebuff, the No. 3 State Department official, Nicholas Burns, said: "On the contrary ... we have great respect for him and we are genuinely pleased that this very important international institution is being recognised ... it's well-deserved."  

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the 2001 peace laureate, said the award should be a wake-up call.  

ElBaradei came to prominence before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 by challenging Washington's argument that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found after Saddam's overthrow. 

Some experts say the IAEA has achieved too little in Iran or North Korea to merit the 2005 prize. But ElBaradei was unbowed.  

"The award sends a very strong message: 'Keep doing what you are doing -- be impartial, act with integrity', and that is what we intend to do," ElBaradei said after applause from UN staff.  

- REUTERS