Global mediator Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize

By John Acher

OSLO (Reuters) - Finland's former president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for a decades-long career of peacemaking around the globe from Namibia to Kosovo.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Ahtisaari to receive the $1.4 million (822,000 pound) prize from a field of 197 candidates "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," the award committee said in its citation, adding it hoped the prize would inspire other peacemakers around the world.

Sweden's Nobel, the philanthropist and inventor of dynamite, created the awards in his will in 1895 and the peace prize is deemed by many to be the world's top accolade.

Praise and congratulations poured in for Ahtisaari, 71, who was Finland's president from 1994 to 2000.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed him as an "ally in the cause of peace, development and human rights" and a constant champion of the ideals of the United Nations.

"No one better than he could win the Nobel Peace Prize," said Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan. "He is only man I know who has made peace on three continents, Africa, Asia and Europe."

In 2005, Ahtisaari brokered peace between Indonesia and rebels in Aceh province to end 30 years of fighting. Until March last year he led Serb-Albanian talks on Kosovo as U.N. envoy.