Carter awarded Nobel peace prize while chairman attacks Bush policies

Tributes flowed in from around the world to hail the former United States president Jimmy Carter, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize yesterday. The Norwegian prize committee delivered an astounding public rebuke of his successor George Bush's policy on Iraq.

In its citation, the committee praised the 39th President's "untiring effort" to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts and to advance democracy and human rights. It singled out Mr Carter's "vital contribution" to the 1978 Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, as well as his efforts in conflict resolution on several continents after he left office.

"In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power," the committee said, Mr Carter "has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international co-operation based on international law, and respect for human rights."

Later, Gunnar Berge, the committee's chairman, banished any doubt that those words were aimed at Mr Bush. "It should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken," Mr Berge said. "It's a kick in the leg [the Norwegian expression for 'slap in the face'] to all who follow the same line as the United States."

His remarks were later disowned by other committee members, but Bill Graham, Canada's Foreign Minister, said the award was "a very positive sign ... about how we would like to see the United States behave in world affairs."

Mr Carter, 78, is the third US president to be honoured, after Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. He was among a record 156 organisations and groups nominated by the 1 February 2002 deadline for the prize, worth almost £700,000. Other contenders included President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and disarmament campaigners.

Since leaving office in January 1981, Mr Carter – often through the agency of the Carter Centre, which he set up in 1982 – has been involved in conflicts around the world. He has intervened in North Korea, East Timor and Bosnia, as well as in the Middle East.

Mr Carter said his concept of rights had grown to include not only the right to live in peace, but also to health care, shelter, food and economic opportunity. "I hope this award reflects a universal acceptance and embrace of this broad-based concept of human rights," he said.

Among those to congratulate him were Mr Bush, while the former US president Bill Clinton said he could not think of anyone more qualified to win the award. "The Nobel peace prize was made for people like Jimmy Carter," he said.

Nelson Mandela, who won the award in 1993, also praised Mr Carter, saying that "even now, when President Bush has taken that belligerent attitude, he has condemned him".