Ahtisaari, Evans tipped for Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Oct 12 (Reuters) International peace brokers such as Finland's Martti Ahtisaari or former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans may win the Nobel Peace Prize tomorrow, Norwegian television news said today.

The winner of the 2006 prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns (1.36 million dollars), will be announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo tomorrow at 11 am (0900 GMT) from a field of 191 candidates.

National broadcaster NRK's veteran reporter Geir Helljesen, who has often named the winner among his tips on the eve of the prize, noted that former President Ahtisaari was a bookmakers' favourite for brokering peace in Indonesia's Aceh province.

''It is rare that a candidate is boosted so much as a favourite for the peace prize as Martti Ahtisaari this year,'' Helljesen said, adding that he could be rewarded for the Aceh deal but also peace work from Namibia to the Balkans.

''Another possible candidate could be the former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, who among other things has played a central role in reconstruction of Cambodia and Vietnam,'' Helljesen said.

Evans heads the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG), a think-tank which conducts research and works to prevent conflicts.

He was an architect of a peace accord for Cambodia, and foreign minister of Australia in 1988-1996.

His name has not previously figured in the media speculation surrounding this year's prize and is not even among those listed by Australian online bookmakers Centrebet. Ahtisaari and his Crisis Management Initiative have been Centrebet's favourite.

FREE ACEH, INDONESIA Centrebet and some experts have seen Ahtisaari with stronger chances than the parties to the Aceh peace accord, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) who agreed to end three decades of conflict.

Other possible winners mentioned by NRK's Helljesen were Muslim human rights advocate Rebiya Kadeer who has stood up for China's Uighur ethnic group and Russian human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov.

Helljesen also said the prize might go to a journalist if the committee decided to widen the scope of the award, or to work to fight poverty. He did not name any possible candidates in either field.

The 2005 prize went to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Egyptian head Mohamed ElBaradei in a year marking the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This year, with no clear historical anniversary and with peace processes from the West Asia to Sri Lanka in tatters, experts have said the field is wide open.

Ahtisaari is currently the UN special envoy for the future of Kosovo. As a top UN official he oversaw Namibia's transition to independence in 1989-1990.

Ahtisaari, who was Finland's president in 1994-2000, is a former chairman of the IGC. yesterday he said the billionaire financier George Soros, who is a member of the IGC executive committee, would deserve the prize.

REUTERS DH PM0132