Laureate urges focus on Mideast

Make it a priority, he tells Obama

OSLO - Finnish mediator Martti Ahtisaari accepted this year's Nobel Peace Prize with a plea to President-elect Barack Obama: Start pressing for Middle East peace as soon as you can.

Receiving the coveted award in Oslo, the former Finnish president rejected the notion that "the Middle East knot can never be untied" and criticized world leaders - as well as the Israelis and Palestinians - for letting the violence continue.

"The international community and those in power are sitting there letting them destroy each other," Ahtisaari, 71, told the Associated Press in an interview before yesterday's prize ceremony. "They are allowing both parties to make their lives in the future even more complicated and difficult than it is today."

He reiterated that call in his acceptance speech, with a special message to Obama.

"I do hope that the new president of the United States, who will be sworn in next month, will give high priority to the Middle East conflict during his first year in the office," he told dignitaries at Oslo's City Hall.

Obama has pledged to make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a key diplomatic priority. He has called for a sustained push to achieve the goal of two states, a Jewish state in Israel and a Palestinian state, that can exist in peace and security. He has also pledged to end the Iraq war and employ diplomacy more often than Bush did.

Ahtisaari received this year's coveted Nobel Peace Prize for his three decades of peace work on three continents.

He was a senior Finnish diplomat in 1977 when he was named the UN envoy for Namibia, where guerrillas were battling South African apartheid rule. He later became undersecretary-general, and in 1988 was dispatched to Namibia to lead 8,000 UN peacekeepers during its transition to independence.

"No single diplomat did more than he did to deliver Namibia's independence," committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said.

After serving as Finland's president from 1994 to 2000, Ahtisaari returned to peace efforts in Kosovo and in Indonesia, where he negotiated a 2005 peace deal between the government and Aceh rebels.

Ahtisaari, who founded the Crisis Management Initiative, a mediation group, has not sought a role in the Middle East, saying the process was in good hands with former Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain mediating. "It's difficult if you have too many cooks in the kitchen," he said.

By selecting Ahtisaari for the prize, the Nobel committee returned its focus to traditional peace work after tapping climate campaigner Al Gore and the UN panel on climate change last year.