Peace Prize To ElBaradei, IAEA

Agency And Its Chief Recognized For Efforts To Stop Spread Of Nukes

(CBS/AP)  ElBaradei and the agency had been among the names mentioned as speculation mounted in recent days 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 prize to anti-nuclear weapons campaigners on the major anniversaries of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

"This is a message to all the people of the world: Do what you can to get rid of nuclear weapons," Nobel committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said. "The people's power is formidable."

On the 50th anniversary, in 1995, the prize went to anti-nuclear campaigner Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash group. In 1985, it went to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and in 1975 to Soviet nuclear scientist-turned-anti-nuclear campaigner Andrei Sakharov.

"We will never give up and we must never give in," Mjoes said.

A record 199 nominations were received for the 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.

The Nobel committee called ElBaradei "an unafraid advocate" of new measures to stem the proliferation of nuclear 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," the committee said.

Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, a friend and colleague of ElBaradei, told The Associated Press the award was "very encouraging and fortunate."

"I see it as an endorsement of the professional and independent role of the IAEA and of international verification in the field of nuclear power and nonproliferation," Blix said.

Under ElBaradei, the IAEA has risen from a nondescript bureaucracy monitoring nuclear sites worldwide to a pivotal institution at the vortex of efforts to disarm Iran and North Korea.

Austere and methodical, ElBaradei took a strident line as he guided the agency through the most serious troubles it faced since the end of the Cold War.

He accused North Korea, for example, of "nuclear brinkmanship" in December 2002 after it expelled two inspectors monitoring a mothballed nuclear complex. Pyongyang said the plant needed to go back on line because of an electricity shortage.