Finland's Martti Ahtisaari, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for more than 30 years of peace mediation around the globe, said he thought he was too Norwegian to win.

"I'm surprised that the Norwegians can make such a decision. I thought that the fact that I have 12.5 percent Norwegian blood would have disqualified me," he said referring to a Norwegian great-grandfather.

He said he was "very pleased and very grateful" that the Nobel committee deemed him worthy of the prize.

Hailed for his work in Indonesia, in Kosovo and in Northern Ireland, Ahtisaari said his role as the UN secretary general's special envoy to Namibia during a decade-long drive towards independence in 1990 was the highlight of his career.

"Of course Namibia is the most important since it took so long," he told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK when asked what he considered his biggest achievement, immediately after the announcement in Oslo.

In 2000, after he concluded his six-year term as Finnish president, Ahtisaari founded the conflict-resolution group Crisis Management Initiative (CMI).

He said the 10-million-kronor (€1.02-million, $1.42-million) Nobel prize sum would help CMI carry out its work.

"It's really important to be able to work properly. You need financing. You can never have enough. If you don't have financing it's hard to react quickly to various issues that arise," he said.

Meanwhile, Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen both congratulated Finland's first Peace Prize laureate.

"I congratulate president Martti Ahtisaari from the bottom of my heart for this prize," Halonen said in a statement.

She praised his more than three decades of work to resolve thorny conflicts.

"As Finns we can be proud that our nation's work for building peace in the world has received the highest possible acknowledgement," she said.

Vanhanen said in a separate statement that Ahtisaari has "served his country, the United Nations and people living in crisis regions for decades. His commitment to peace and human rights is remarkable."

AFP