09 October,2009 03:23 PM IST | | IANS
US President Barack Obama hasu00a0been awardedu00a0the Nobel Peace Prize 2009. Obama will formally recieve the award on December 10.
A five-member jury from the Nobel Committee selected Obama foru00a0his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy.
The committee said it attached special importance to Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
"Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play," the committee said on its website.
"Only very rarely has a person, to the same extent as Obama, captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population," the committee said.
Obama was elected as the first African-American president of his country in November 2008.
Last year, the Nobel committee awarded the prize to former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
