IAEA, agency chief win Nobel Peace Prize
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-08 07:33

The Nobel committee recognized ElBaradei and the U.N. nuclear agency "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way."

"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.

ElBaradei and the agency had been among the favorites to win as speculation mounted the Nobel committee would seek to honor the victims of nuclear weapons and those who try to contain their use.

The committee has repeatedly awarded its peace prize to anti-nuclear weapons campaigners on the major anniversaries of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

Among the dozens of foreign leaders congratulating ElBaradei was German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder — a strong critic of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam. He praised ElBaradei's "courageous stand for an objective view of the situation in the run-up to the Iraq war."

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf also applauded the choice — despite often tense relations with the IAEA, most recently over revelations of an enormous nuclear black market run by disgraced Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

ElBaradei's agency has been pivotal in nearly three years of investigations into Iran's suspect nuclear activities, including programs that can be used for making weapons.

Last month, the IAEA board put Iran on notice that it faces referral to the U.N. Security Council unless it dispels international concerns about it nuclear aims — despite ElBaradei's private preference for a less confrontational approach.

The agency has had no control over North Korea since the country quit the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in 2003. But ElBaradei has said he hopes to have his inspectors back in the country — the "sooner the better" — in the wake of North Korea's announcement that it wants to end its atomic weapons program.

In Iraq, IAEA inspectors searched for evidence of a nuclear weapons program in the months ahead of the 2003 invasion but failed to find concrete evidence to back U.S. assertions that Saddam's regime had such a program.

ElBaradei is the second Egyptian to win the Nobel Peace Prize. President Anwar Sadat received the honor in 1978 for negotiating a peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

The Nobel committee received a record 199 nominations for the peace prize, which includes $1.3 million, a gold medal and a diploma. ElBaradei and the IAEA will share the award when they receive it Dec. 10 in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.