ElBaradei given Nobel Peace Prize

PRAGUE -- Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency he leads received the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize yesterday, a tribute to their diplomatic work to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The award was seen by some as an implicit shot at the Bush administration, which tried to push ElBaradei from his post.

A 63-year-old lawyer from Egypt, ElBaradei has headed the United Nations nuclear watchdog since 1997 and has been at the epicenter of the IAEA's efforts to resolve recent high-stakes proliferation threats involving North Korea, Iran, Iraq, and Libya -- sparring frequently with the United States in the process.

He has also been the driving force behind a campaign to persuade the world's governments to beef up the 1970 nuclear nonproliferation treaty to reflect the changing nature of the nuclear risks and to give the IAEA more authority to investigate and curb proliferation.

''At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation," Ole Danbolt Mjoes, director of the Nobel Committee which picks the winner, said in Oslo while announcing the award. ''This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its director general," Mjoes added.

Speaking to reporters at the IAEA's headquarters in Vienna, ElBaradei said the prize ''underscores the value and the relevance of the work we have been doing. Receiving the award strengthens our resolve at a time when we have a hard road ahead of us," he added.

ElBaradei said he learned of the prize at home while watching television with his wife, Aida; he jumped to his feet and hugged and kissed her in celebration.

He and the IAEA shared the peace prize 60 years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 at the end of World War II. It continued an apparent recent trend of awarding the prize to disarmament campaigners in years marking major anniversaries of the only two nuclear attacks in history.

ElBaradei has repeatedly urged the world to take a fresh look at how it combats proliferation.

His most controversial suggestion has been to place some aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle under international control, which would require major changes in international law. He has also called for states to exercise greater controls on nuclear exports, for tougher measures against nuclear trafficking and for member states to be more cooperative in sharing intelligence with the IAEA.

''This will certainly give him more leverage and credibility," said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming in Vienna. ''It will be much harder to refuse to listen."

Set up in 1957, the IAEA monitors the nonproliferation treaty -- which allows only the United States, Russia, Great Britain, France, and China to possess nuclear weapons -- and conducts inspections to ensure that nuclear facilities are used for peaceful purposes and cannot be diverted to weapons. In his tenure, ElBaradei has sought to make the agency more active in investigating treaty violations.

The award comes as the IAEA and Western nations are engaged in a showdown with Iran and North Korea over their nuclear programs, and ElBaradei said he hoped the award will give a ''shot in the arm" to those efforts.

Despite a stormy relationship with the Bush administration, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice phoned ElBaradei to offer congratulations.

''I congratulate the International Atomic Energy Agency and its Director General, Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, on being awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize," Rice said in a statement posted on the State Department's website. ''The United States is committed to working with the IAEA to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons technology."

John Bolton, the US ambassador to the United Nations who has been ElBaradei's most vocal critic in the Bush administration, joined in Rice's congratulations, the Associated Press reported. Asked if he saw the prize as a rebuff to the US strategy, Bolton said only: ''I'll stick with the secretary's statement."

ElBaradei made headlines, and earned the enmity of the Bush White House, shortly before the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 when he challenged Washington's claim that Saddam Hussein had restarted his nuclear weapons program. No evidence of such a program was found after Hussein's overthrow.

US officials also accused him of being overly accommodating in efforts to get Iran to abandon sensitive nuclear research that Washington believes is part of a weapons program. When ElBaradei's second term as head of the IAEA expired this year, the Bush administration opposed his quest for a third term. But when it became apparent that he had enough international support to keep his job, Washington dropped its objections and ElBaradei was reelected in June.

Some analysts said they saw a message in the award.

''The overt message is that preventing nuclear proliferation is important," said Ivo Daalder, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

''But I think there is a covert message as well: that it is a good idea to have ElBaradei at the IAEA because he was right about Iraq and the administration was wrong," Daalder added. ''It cannot escape people's attention that this was the man who stood up against the United States and said that Iraq was not reconstituting its nuclear program."

But Nobel Committee chairman Mjoes rejected such an interpretation. ''This is not a kick in the legs to any country," Reuters quoted him as saying at a press conference.

ElBaradei was magnanimous about his past conflicts with Washington, telling AP Television News that he did not consider the award ''a critique" of the United States. ''We had disagreement before the Iraq war -- honest disagreement," he said.

Material from Reuters and the Associated Press were used in this report.

Antinuclear activists recognized

Since the United States used nuclear weapons in 1945, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded many times to antinuclear activists and organizations.

1959 Philip Noel-Baker, Britain, in acknowledgment of his efforts to help refugees of war and to promote arms control and disarmament.

1962 Linus Pauling, United States. Campaigned for an end to nuclear weapons testing. He was also awarded the Nobel in chemistry in 1954.

1974 Eisaku Sato, then Japan's prime minister, for his opposition to any plans for a Japanese nuclear weapons program and his crucial role in ensuring the country's signature of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

1975 Andrei Sakharov, the Soviet Union. Campaigner for human rights as well as an antinuclear activist.

1982 Prize divided between Alva Myrdal, former Swedish disarmament minister, and Alfonso Garcia Robles, former Mexican foreign minister.

1985 International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Boston.

1990 Mikhail Gorbachev, recognized for initiatives taken to stop and reverse the nuclear arms race of the 1980s.

1995 Prize divided between Joseph Rotblat, Britain, and his organization, the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics.

2005 Prize was divided between the UN International Atomic Energy Agency and its director, Mohamed ElBaradei, of Egypt.

Source: Nobel committeeKATHLEEN HENNRIKUS/GLOBE STAFF