OSLO, Oct 12: The United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan won the centenary Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for working for “a better organized and more peaceful world” in tackling challenges from poverty to terrorism.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes in its centenary year to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations,” committee leader Gunnar Berge said. The first Nobel Prize was awarded in 1901.

The prize citation said that Annan, a 63-year-old Ghanaian, had been “pre-eminent in bringing new life to the UN” since becoming the world’s top diplomat in 1997.

“He has risen to new challenges such as HIV/AIDS and international terrorism,” it said.

Alluding to the US strikes on Afghanistan, Berger said events of recent weeks had “further underpinned” the UN award.

He did not elaborate and stopped short of urging Washington to consult the United Nations more in its “war on terrorism”.

The committee said it was awarding the prize to the United Nations and Annan for “their work for a better organized and more peaceful world”.

Annan, awoken early in the morning in New York by his spokesman Fred Eckhard to hear of the award, said it was a great recognition for the world body, which was established in 1945 and has 50,000 employees.

“It’s a wonderful feeling and a great encouragement for us and the organization, for the work we have done until now,” he said. “It’s a great recognition for the staff.”

But, referring to the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he said: “At the same time it is a great responsibility at such a difficult moment, but reinforces us in pursuing the search for peace.”

The prize, named after Alfred Nobel, a Swedish philanthropist and inventor of dynamite, is worth one million dollars. Annan said he would attend the prize ceremony in Oslo on Dec 10. —Reuters