Announcing the prize, Committee chairman Francis Sejersted said ``Medicines Sans Frontiers has adhered to the fundamental principle that all disaster victims... have a right to professional assistance, given as quickly and as efficiently as possible.''

The Committee said in a statement: ``In critical situations, marked by violence and brutality, the humanitarian work of MSF enables the organisation to create openings for contacts between the opposed parties. At the same time, each fearless and self-sacrificing helper shows each victim a human face, stands for respect for that person's dignity, and is a source of hope for peace and reconciliation.''

MSF was founded in Paris in 1971, withthe goal of providing medical aid to people wherever needed, whether in a war zone or a country hit by natural disaster. It was the first non-governmental and non-military organisation to do so. The organisation won acclaim for its work during the war in Biafra in West Africa in the 1970s, and in the 1972 earthquake in Nicaragua. It has provided medical assistance in war-torn Vietnam, Afghanistan and Rwanda.

MSF volunteers have a reputation of being first in and last out in the often very dangerous situations in which they work.

MSF secretary-general Jean-Marie Kindermans said: ``We are very pleased and very honoured.'' He said that he hoped that the recognition they had received would allow the organisation to work in countries where local governments or warlords had so far not allowed them to. An MSF founder said that it all looked so easy now but when they had started out more than 25 years ago, just convincing people that they had a right to cross borders to provide medical help was a majorhurdle.