The Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony Friday

King Harald and Quees Sonja joined representatives of the Norwegian Government in the packed Oslo City Hall to honour the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize at the Award Ceremony on Friday. The Prize winner, Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has not been permitted to come to Oslo and his chair was empty.

In his award ceremony speech, Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjørn Jagland praised China for its move forward over recent years, lifting millions of people out of poverty.

He called it an "extraordinary achievement" but warned China that its new status as a leading world power meant Beijing "must regard criticism as positive".

Mr Jagland compared China's anger at the award to the outcry over peace prizes awarded to other dissidents of their times, including South African archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The chairman of the Nobel prize committee called for the immediate release of jailed Liu Xiaobo,

He said Mr Liu was dedicating his prize to "the lost souls from 4 June", those who died in the pro-democracy protests on that date in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

"We can say (Mr) Liu reminds us of Nelson Mandela," he said. The former South African president received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

At the end of his speech, again drawing attention to the fact that Liu Xiaobo had not been permitted to be present, he placed the Nobel Peace Prize mesa and diploma in the empty chair reserved for Mr Liu.

Instead of the speach usually held by the Nobel Peace Priize Laureate, Norwegian actreess Liv Ullmann read out the final statement from Mr Liu which he made to a court at the time of his trial in December 2009.

"I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future, free China," his statement said.

"For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme," Mr Liu stated.

Liu Xiaobo had personally requested that a children's choir should be aamong the performers at the award ceremony, and the children's choir of the Norwegian Opera fulfilled his request, singing a number of Norwegian folk songs as a conclusion to the ceremony.

Following heavy pressure from the Chinese authorities, it was announced earlier this week that 19 of the 64 nations represented with an embassy in Oslo, would not attend the ceremony.

However, several countries have reportedly changed their mind. Among them Serbia, Ukraine and the Philippines.

According to NRK's latest report Friday morning, it now looks like the following nations will not be represented:

Russia, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Saudi-Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Egypt, Sudan, Cuba, Morocco and Algerie.

It was still unclear whether or not Sri Lanka would attend the ceremony.

(NRK)