The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who has spent 30 years helping end conflicts in troublespots ranging from Kosovo to Namibia and Indonesia.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee hailed the 71-year-old Ahtisaari "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts."
"These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to 'fraternity between nations' in Alfred Nobel's spirit," committee head Ole Danbolt Mjoes said.
Ahtisaari, a quiet, portly man now afflicted by rheumatism, told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that his work as the UN special envoy to Namibia had been the highlight of his career.
"Of course Namibia is the most important since it took so long," he said, adding that he was "very pleased" to win the prestigious prize.
As the UN secretary general's special envoy, Ahtisaari guided Namibia towards a peaceful independence in 1990 after more than a decade of negotiations.
He also oversaw the 2005 reconciliation between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, ending a three-decade conflict that killed some 15,000 people.
In Europe he was deeply involved in Kosovo, even though his mediation efforts failed to clinch an agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. Pristina in February this year unilaterally declared its independence.
And in May 2000 the British government appointed Ahtisaari to co-head, with Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the inspection of IRA arms' dumps in Northern Ireland.
"He never gives up. He always tries to find a solution. The world needs more people like him," Mjoes said.
Although he most recently displayed his talents as a mediator in Europe, Ahtisaari cut his diplomatic teeth in Africa. He was appointed Finland's ambassador to Tanzania in 1973, at the age of 36.
He became UN Commissioner for Namibia in 1977 and in 1978 was named the UN envoy to Namibia.
In 1994 Finland's Social Democratic Party nominated him to run for the presidency and Ahtisaari became the first directly elected Finnish president.
Mocked by the Finnish press for his stout figure and his limp, Ahtisaari was ill at ease with the largely ceremonial role of president. With his true passion in foreign affairs, Ahtisaari likened his six-year tour in domestic politics to "an extramarital affair".
At the end of 2005, Ahtisaari was appointed the UN special envoy for talks on Kosovo, seven years after he played a key role in bringing an end to hostilities in the Serbian province.
He recommended independence for the breakaway Serbian province, where there is an ethnic Albanian majority, but his inability to get the two sides to agree was a blow for him.
The great and the good of world diplomacy saluted Ahtisaari's conflict resolution efforts and said there could be no worthier recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner praised Ahtisaari for "his courageous and determined action" to bring peace to Namibia, Kosovo, Indonesia's Aceh and other world troublespots.
"The Nobel Committee is paying tribute to the exceptional commitment of a man who has served peace in the world," Kouchner said in a statement.
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, himself a Nobel peace laureate in 2001, said he had telephoned Ahtisaari to personally congratulate the Finn on the award.
"No one better than he could win the Nobel Peace Prize.
"He is the only man I know who has made peace on three continents: Africa, Asia and Europe and I always found him ready to answer the call to make this world a better place," Annan said.
Ahtisaari meanwhile said he planned to spend the 10-million-kronor (1.02 million euros, 1.42 million dollars) prize money to help fund the Crisis Management Initiative group he founded after he concluded his six-year term as Finnish president in 2000.
"You need financing. You can never have enough. If you don't have financing it's hard to react quickly to various issues that arise," he said.
Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen both congratulated Finland's first Peace Prize laureate, with Vanhanen saying "his commitment to peace and human rights is remarkable."
With its decision to hand the 2008 prize to Ahtisaari, the Nobel committee has returned to a more traditional interpretation of the award, after broadening the prize's boundaries in recent years to encompass environmental work, for instance.
Last year's Peace Prize went to former US vice president Al Gore and the United Nations panel on climate change.
