Barack Obama wins Noble Peace Prize

The first African-American President of the United States Barack Obama has been named as surprise winner of Noble Peace Prize.

Obama won the prestigious award on Friday for his calls to reduce the world's stockpile of nuclear weapons and working for world peace.

The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjoern Jagland said that Obama was honored "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

"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," the committee said in a citation.

The US president wins over more than 200 nominees.

Last month, Obama chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council, which unanimously approved a US-drafted resolution calling on nuclear weapons states to scrap their arsenals.

Obama is the third senior US Democrat to win the award this decade after former president Jimmy Carter and former vice president Al Gore won the prize in 2002 and 2007 respectively.

The prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($1.4 million), will be handed over in Oslo on Dec. 10.