Laureate urges Obama on Mideast

Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari urged US President-elect Barack Obama yesterday to delve into solving the Middle East conflict in his first year in office, calling it a knot that could be untied.

The former Finnish president and veteran diplomat received the 2008 peace prize, announced in October, for decades of peace-brokering around the globe.

"Peace is a question of will," Ahtisaari said upon receiving the prize at Oslo's city hall. "All conflicts can be settled, and there are no excuses for allowing them to become eternal."