"May your endless fight for what is right always be a source of inspiration for the human race," said Nobel Peace Committee leader Ole Danbolt Mjøs in his speech to the 64-year-old prize winner.

Danbolt Mjøs admitted that the committee had widened the concept of peace with their selection but rejected critics that argued that environmental destruction was not an important source of conflict.

"I predict that in a few decades, when researchers have developed more complete analyses of many of the world's conflicts, the connection between the environment, resources and conflict may be nearly as obvious as the connection today between human rights, democracy and peace," Danbolt Mjøs said.

The committee leader also made it clear that this year's award is meant as a tribute to African women.

Danbolt Mjøs said that African women always been central to development on the continent and had borne the heaviest burdens. He also mentioned that African women were particularly hard hit by the AIDS epidemic, without reference to Maathai's earlier controversial remarks on the topic.

On Friday Maathai told the Associated Press that remarks by her that AIDS was a laboratory-created disease aimed to wipe out Africans were misquoted and taken out of context.

In a statement released by the Nobel Committee she said: "It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive."