List of Nobel Peace Prize hopefuls is longest ever

The Nobel Institute said Friday that 129 individuals and 44 organizations had been nominated.

No names have been officially divulged, but well-placed sources confirmed the presence of the French, British and American leaders on the list, as well as that of former Czech president Vaclav Havel and Pope John Paul II, who also lost out to Shirin Ebadi, a human rights lawyer from Iran, last year.

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"This is the highest number ever," Geir Lundestad, head of the Nobel Institute, told AFP.

The list could become longer still: Nobel committee members have until March 2 to put forward their own candidates, and there is the chance that some letters sent before the official February 1 deadline could still be in the post.