President Klaus "surprised" by choice of Gore for Nobel Prize

President Vaclav Klaus, who has publicly questioned the impact humans have on global warming, has released a statement admitting "surprise" at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to former US vice-president and environmental activist Al Gore (awarded along with the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). This year's winners were officially announced on Friday. In his statement released by his office the Czech president indicated that the connections between Mr Gore's activities and world peace were "vague" and "not very clear". Mr Klaus, an economist known for sceptical views on global warming, recently published a book called "A Blue, not Green, Planet", which he has described as a counterweight to Al Gore's film on climate change "An Inconvenient Truth".

By contrast, on Friday, Czech environmental groups as well as Environment Minister Martin Bursik - the head of the Green Party -welcomed this year's Nobel Peace Prize decision.