Nineteen countries "decline" to attend Nobel ceremony

Nineteen countries, including China, Cuba, Iraq, Iran and Russia have "declined" to attend this week's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, the Norwegian Nobel Committee confirmed Tuesday, DPA reported.

The ceremony on Friday is in honour of the 2010 laureate, Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo, who is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion.

The decision to give the award to Liu, who is not allowed to leave China to accept the prize, angered Beijing.

As a consequence China has in recent weeks cancelled scheduled meetings with Norwegian officials and declared China would stay away from the ceremony, urging other countries to follow the boycott.

Algeria and Sri Lanka have not answered, the Nobel Committee said.

However, 44 countries were scheduled to attend the ceremony.

"China's reactions have legitimised the prize, at least in large parts of the world," Thorbjorn Jagland, chairman of the five-member committee, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK's foreign affairs programme Urix.

"It is clear that an 11-year sentence for voicing your opinion adds importance to the prize," he added.

In 2008, 10 embassies were absent when former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari accepted the prize.

The peace prize is awarded in Oslo while the awards for science, literature and economics are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden.

The Chinese ambassador to Sweden was not to attend the award ceremony in Stockholm on Friday.

The awards were endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, inventor of dynamite. The award ceremonies are traditionally held December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.