OSLO, Norway (AP) — Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency that he heads won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

ElBaradei, a 63-year-old lawyer from Egypt, has led the U.N. nuclear agency as it grappled with the crisis in Iraq and the ongoing efforts to prevent North Korea and Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.

The Nobel committee said ElBaradei and the IAEA should be recognized for addressing one of the greatest dangers facing the world.

“At a time when the threat of nuclear arms is again increasing, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to underline that this threat must be met through the broadest possible international cooperation. This principle finds its clearest expression today in the work of the IAEA and its director general.”

ElBaradei said in Vienna, Austria, that the prize “sends a strong message” about the agency’s disarmament efforts and will strengthen his resolve to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

“The award basically sends a very strong message, which is: Keep doing what you are doing,” ElBaradei said. “It’s a responsibility but it’s also a shot in the arm. They want to give the agency and me a shot in the arm to move forward.”

The committee said it recognized the IAEA and ElBaradei for “their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way.”

ElBaradei, who was reappointed last month to a third term, has had to contend with U.S. opposition to his tenure. Much of the opposition stemmed from Washington’s perception he was being too soft on Iran for not declaring it in violation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. That stance blocked a U.S. bid to haul Tehran before the U.N. Security Council, where it could face possible sanctions, for more than two years.

The IAEA passed a resolution last month warning Tehran of such referral unless it allayed fears about its nuclear program.

ElBaradei also refused to endorse Washington’s contention that Iran was working to make nuclear weapons and disputed U.S. assertions that Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq had an active atomic weapons program – both claims that remain unproven, despite growing suspicions about Tehran’s nuclear agenda.

ElBaradei and the agency had been among the names mentioned as speculation mounted in recent days the Nobel committee would seek to honor the victims of nuclear weapons and those who try to contain their use.

The committee has repeatedly awarded its prize to anti-nuclear weapons campaigners on the major anniversaries of the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.

“This is a message to all the people of the world: Do what you can to get rid of nuclear weapons,” Nobel committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said. “The people’s power is formidable.”

On the 50th anniversary, in 1995, the prize went to anti-nuclear campaigner Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash group. In 1985, it went to International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and in 1975 to Soviet nuclear scientist-turned-anti-nuclear campaigner Andrei Sakharov.

“We will never give up and we must never give in,” Mjoes said.

A record 199 nominations were received for the prize, which includes $1.3 million, a gold medal and a diploma. ElBaradei and the IAEA will share the award when they receive it Dec. 10 in the Norwegian capital.

The Nobel committee called ElBaradei “an unafraid advocate” of new measures to stem the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

“At a time when disarmament efforts appear deadlocked, when there is a danger that nuclear arms will spread both to states and to terrorist groups, and when nuclear power again appears to be playing an increasingly significant role, IAEA’s work is of incalculable importance,” the committee said.

Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix, a friend and colleague of ElBaradei, told The Associated Press the award was “very encouraging and fortunate.”

“I see it as an endorsement of the professional and independent role of the IAEA and of international verification in the field of nuclear power and nonproliferation,” Blix said.

Under ElBaradei, the IAEA has risen from a nondescript bureaucracy monitoring nuclear sites worldwide to a pivotal institution at the vortex of efforts to disarm the two regimes.

Austere and methodical, ElBaradei took a strident line as he guided the agency through the most serious troubles it faced since the end of the Cold War.

He accused North Korea, for example, of “nuclear brinkmanship” in December 2002 after it expelled two inspectors monitoring a mothballed nuclear complex. Pyongyang said the plant needed to go back on line because of an electricity shortage.

Norway’s outgoing Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said the committee’s choice was “gratifying.”

“This is a homage to their crucial efforts to stop nuclear proliferation, in order to prevent the use of such weapons in conflicts between states or in terrorist attacks,” he said.

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