20000213

144 candidates

for 2000 Nobel

Peace Prize

OSLO: The Nobel Peace Price committee has received 144 nominations for the 2000 award, Oslo's Nobel Institute Director Geir Lundestad said on Friday.

Among the candidates, who included 32 organisations, was the Salvation Army, said Lundestad, whose institute is responsible for handing out the Nobel peace prize each year.

Foremost on the list were prominent politicians, he said.

US President Bill Clinton and former senator George Mitchell, who brokered Northern Ireland's peace accord, were among the candidates, according to Storting (parliament) representatives Vidar Kleppe and Steinar Bastesen.

Others included the Italian Roman Catholic organisation Sant Egidio, which works for contacts among the different religions, former US President Jimmy Carter, and South Korea President Kim Dae-Jung.

One of the most original candidatures is the town of Kukes in northern Albania, where 450,000 refugees from Kosovo were given shelter last year by the 15,000 inhabitants, Norway's NTB news agency reported. Kukes was put forward by Albanian Prime Minister Ilir Meta.

The 1999 Nobel Peace Prize, worth 7.9 million Swedish kronor (929,400 euros/dollars) went to the French humanitarian organisation Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders).ÑAFP