NORWAY: Bono, Pope John Paul, a Cuban dissident and the French President, Mr Jacques Chirac, are among a near-record 150 nominees for the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.
"We have a total of 150 nominees so far, of which 21 are organisations," said Mr Geir Lundestad, head of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, yesterday after compiling a list of names sent by the February 1st deadline.
He said the list was likely, at least, to match the record 156 for the 2002 prize, won by former US president Mr Jimmy Carter, because the five members of the awards committee can propose names when they first meet on February 25th.
Mr Lundestad said fears of war in Iraq had apparently not distracted from peace efforts elsewhere in the world. "The range of nominees is very wide," he said.
Mr Stein Tonnesson, director of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, said chief UN weapons inspector Dr Hans Blix and Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, will be favourites if they help avert war in Iraq.
"If they succeed in getting Iraq to disarm sufficiently to prevent the US and Britain from going to war, then they deserve it," he said.
Mr Lundestad declined to give names of nominees for the $1 million prize, named after Sweden's Alfred Nobel, and due to be awarded in October.
People and organisations whose names have been made public elsewhere include the European Union, peace group Women in Black, Bono, Chinese dissident Mr Wei Jingsheng, Cuba's leading dissident Mr Oswaldo Paya and human rights group Global Witness.
Bono has become an outspoken fundraiser for Third World problems in recent years.
He was instrumental in the Drop The Debt campaign, which wiped out millions of dollars of international debt owed by Third World governments.
Last year, he travelled the world to lobby world leaders, including President Bush, to encourage them to contribute more aid relief to developing countries.
Mr George Ryan, the former governor of Illinois who commuted the sentences of more than 150 people on death row in January, is among the nominees along with former Czech president Mr Vaclav Havel and French President Mr Jacques Chirac.