Schroeder nominated for Nobel peace prize

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been nominated for the Nobel peace prize, well-informed sources said Tuesday when contacted by Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Nobel literature
laureate Guenter Grass of Germany, who won the 1999 literature prize, said Monday that he considered Schroeder a candidate for the peace prize over his opposition to allowing Germany to participate in the U.S. led attack on Iraq.

The most recent German national to win the prestigious peace prize was Willy Brandt, the late Social Democratic Chancellor and politician, who won the award in 1971.

A record 199 nominations including 166 individual nominees were reported to be under consideration for the 2005 award.

The peace prize, worth 10 million
kronor (EUR 1.25 million), will be announced October 14 in Oslo, Norway.

Other names mentioned were former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, renowned musician Ravi Shankar of India, and Russian human rights activist Sergei Kovalyov and previous nominees such as former Czech president Vaclav Havel, Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu, and Bono of the Irish rock group U2.

Parliamentarians, academics, former peace prize laureates and current and former members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee have the right to nominate candidates.

The committee that selects the final winner advises nominators not to announce their proposals. However, there are no rules against the procedure thus leaving plenty of room for speculation before the announcement.