OSLO, Norway (CNN) --Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for what presenters cited as decades of work seeking peaceful solutions and promoting social and economic justice.

Carter, Democratic president from 1977 to 1981, has won praise for his tireless work as an ex-president in trying to bring peace to places from Haiti to North Korea.

Announcing the winner on Friday, the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Carter's decades of "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

Carter, 78, told CNN he was called by the committee at 4:30 a.m., about 30 minutes before he normally gets up.

"Obviously, I'm very grateful to the Nobel Committee for choosing me," Carter said. "I think they've announced very clearly that the work of the Carter Center has been a wonderful contribution to the world for the last 20 years."

The former president has said that the Carter Center, an Atlanta, Georgia-based organization devoted to global peace and social justice, may be his greatest legacy.

Carter has been repeatedly nominated for the prize, worth $1 million, and came close to winning in 1978 when he brought Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat together to sign the Camp David Peace Accords, but his presidency faltered under the weight of the Iran hostage crisis.

The Carter Center was founded after he left the White House in 1981 after losing his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan.

"When I left the White House I was a fairly young man and I realized I maybe have 25 more years of active life," Carter said, "so we capitalized on the influence that I had as a former president of the greatest nation in the world and decided to fill vacuums."

Carter, who is married with four children, has spent the past two decades traveling around the globe monitoring elections, promoting human rights, and providing health care and food to the world's poor.

The peace prize announcement caps a week of awards, with prizes for literature, medicine, physics, chemistry and economics already announced in Sweden's capital, Stockholm.

He won the 2002 peace prize from a record field of 156 candidates -- 117 individuals and 39 groups -- vying for the honor named for Alfred Nobel, a Swedish philanthropist and inventor of dynamite. The list of nominees remains secret for 50 years, but those who nominate sometimes announce their choice.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, also a candidate for the prize, was one of the first people to congratulate Carter and said he was happy to be among the candidates.

"After the 23 years of war and disaster in Afghanistan, to be known for peace is really nice and enjoyable, but I believe President Carter deserved it," Karzai said, minutes after the official announcement.

"[Carter] had many, many years of work for peace in a very concerted way, in a very human way, and I congratulate him, he deserved it better than I. I'll try for next year," Karzai added.

The announcement of the award came only hours after the U.S. House and Senate gave President George W. Bush authorization to use military force against Iraq in order to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions requiring that Baghdad give up weapons of mass destruction.

In an interview with CNN, Carter declined to address the situation with Iraq, saying instead he would rather focus on the peace prize.

Asked if the selection of the former president was a criticism of Bush, Gunnar Berge, head of the Nobel committee, said: "With the position Carter has taken on this, it can and must also be seen as criticism of the line the current U.S. administration has taken on Iraq."

The committee made reference in its citation to current world events that may see the United States take military action against Iraq.

"In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development," the Nobel Committee said.

If there's any US president I do have respect for it was Jimmy C. He truly believed that a peacful world could exist. Too bad he was too peaceful for America. Thats why people didnt dig him. Go, Jimmy!

the timing of this is interesting..i wonder if its a slap in the face of Bush and his war monger attitude..

Yes!!! A well deserved slap in the face! Read on:

Carter Wins Nobel Peace Prize, Bush Rebuked
Fri Oct 11, 1:32 PM ET
By Alister Doyle

OSLO (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday by a committee whose head called the decision a deliberate slap in the face for the current U.S. government over its policy on Iraq.

Carter, a Democrat who was president from 1977 to 1981, was awarded the $1 million prize from a record field of 156 candidates for decades of work to resolve conflicts from the Middle East to North Korea (news - web sites), and from Haiti to Eritrea.

"This honor serves as an inspiration not only to us but also to suffering people around the world and I accept it on their behalf," Carter said in a statement released by his non-profit Carter Center in Atlanta.

The secretive five-member prize committee praised Carter, 78, for "decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."

The prize, named after Swedish philanthropist Alfred Nobel, was widely hailed abroad as honoring an elder statesman who has been praised more since leaving office than when president.

"It's great. He deserves it," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), who shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations (news - web sites).

The committee praised Carter for an "outstanding commitment" to human rights and for everything from his battle against tropical diseases to his help for developing nations. The prize will be handed over on December 10 in Oslo.

Carter came close to winning the award in 1978 when Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat shared the prize for the peace accord that he brokered.

The committee that year wanted to give Carter the prize but he had not been formally nominated by the February deadline.

SLAP IN THE FACE FOR WASHINGTON

The chairman of the committee, Gunnar Berge, used the prize to make a scathing attack on President Bush (news - web sites)'s campaign to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).

U.S. lawmakers gave Bush solid bipartisan support on Thursday for a strike on Iraq. Carter said last month it would be a "tragic mistake" for the United States to attack Iraq without U.N. backing.

"With the position Carter has taken...(the award) can and must also be seen as criticism of the line the current U.S. administration has taken on Iraq," Berge, a former Labour cabinet minister, told reporters after announcing the award.

Asked if it was a "kick in the leg" at Washington, Berge said: "Yes, the answer is an unconditional 'yes."' A "kick in the leg" is a Norwegian phrase meaning "a slap in the face."

But two committee members said Berge had gone too far. Inger-Marie Ytterhorn, an ex-parliamentarian of a far-right party, said Berge had acted "unprofessionally" in going beyond the official citation that only made a veiled reference to Iraq.

Berge defended his interpretation. "I expressed myself as leader of the committee...not on behalf of all of the members," he told Norwegian NRK radio.

INCENSING GOVERNMENTS

Committee decisions have often antagonized governments.

The 1975 prize awarded to human rights campaigner Andrei Sakharov incensed the Soviet Union. The 1935 prize to German anti-Nazi journalist Carl von Ossietzky prompted Hitler to ban Germans from ever accepting Nobel Prizes.

And the committee angered China by giving the prize to Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in 1989 only months after the Tiananmen massacre. In 1997, anti-land mine campaigners won for promoting a treaty opposed by Washington.

The official 2002 text says: "In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power, Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development."

Carter won from a field that included Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Chinese dissidents and U.S. disarmament experts in a year dominated by the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Ex-South African President Nelson Mandela, who won the award in 1993, praised Carter through his spokeswoman. "Even now when President Bush has taken that belligerent attitude, he (Carter) has condemned him," Mandela said.

And Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham told a Helsinki news conference: "I think the world will generally accept this award as being a very positive sign... about how we would like to see the United States behave in world affairs."

A former peanut farmer, Carter was the third U.S. President to win the Nobel Prize since it was set up in 1901, following Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919.

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One of our most honorable presidents, Jimmy Carter has acted on what most politicians talk about. He has built homes 4 the poor thru HUD and traveled the world 4 peace and promoting peace... Jimmy Carter has my most sincere congratulations 4 a much deserved honor.

soulpower said:

Total agreement. Congrats, President Carter!