Washington/Oslo, Oct. 9: The United States president, Mr Barack Obama, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, triggering a chorus of praise and protests from across the world.

Even Mr Obama seemed surprised by the decision and said at the White House rose garden that he was “humbled by it” and admitted to feeling queasy about being counted in the company of the “transformative figures” of history who had won the prize.

Mr Obama has been in office for less than nine months and has no major achievements to speak of, but the Nobel Committee said it was honouring his “world view” rather than his successes.

“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,” the committee said and praised “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” “It is because we would like to support what he is trying to achieve,” said the Nobel Committee head, Mr Thorbjoern Jagland, when mediapersons asked him why Mr Obama was being rewarded.

What seems to have impressed the committee is Mr Obama’s attempt to reach out to the Muslim world, his efforts for a nuke weapons free world and his promise of effective action to reverse climate change.

However, critics termed the Nobel committee decision premature, given that Mr Obama so far has made little tangible headway in the myriad problems he faces.

As of now, the President is grappling with challenges ranging from the war in Afghanistan and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to nuclear standoffs with Iran and North Korea.

His rivals in the US were the first to let fly barbs. US Republican Party chairman, Mr Michael Steele, said Mr Obama won the prize as a result of his “star power” rather than meaningful accomplishments. “The real question Americans are asking is: What has President Obama actually accomplished?” he said.

Back in Europe, the former Polish President Lech Walesa, who won in 1983, wondered whether Mr Obama deserved it now. “So soon? Too early,” he quipped.

However, praise poured in from other parts of the world. The French President, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, called the decision the embodiment of the “return of America into the hearts of the people of the world.”

The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the UPA chairperson, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, also congratulated Mr Obama.