WASHINGTON -- Like his campaign, President Barack Obama's surprising win of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday can be summed up by one word: hope.

It reflects not so much a record of accomplishment -- he has yet to achieve any major foreign policy successes -- as the yearning of the five-member prize committee that Obama is changing America's course in international affairs.

It hopes that he will succeed in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and lead the world in curbing global warming. More broadly, it wants to cheer him on to keep reaching out to the world toward international cooperation and collaboration and away from the unilateral approach they hated in his predecessor, George W. Bush.

``Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future,'' Nobel Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said in announcing the award Friday.

Despite Obama's brief tenure on the job and lack of tangible results on the world stage, the Nobel Committee said that it honored the president ``for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.''

Obama said he was surprised by the award, and that he didn't deserve it.

``I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations,'' he said at the White House.

``To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize, men and women who've inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.''

Obama takes the prize much faster than any of the other three American presidents who have won it before him.

Theodore Roosevelt won the 1906 prize after he interceded to negotiate peace between warring Japan and Russia. In his second term, Roosevelt brought the two sides to Portsmouth, N.H., in September 1905 and helped negotiate a peace treaty after several weeks.

Woodrow Wilson won the 1919 prize after he pushed to create the League of Nations following World War I, traveling to Europe late in his second term to negotiate.

Long after he left office in 1981, Jimmy Carter won the 2002 prize for what the committee called decades of work. As president, Carter brought Egypt and Israel together for extended talks at Camp David that produced a peace agreement. As a former president, he has traveled the globe to promote human rights and monitor elections.

Obama has urged peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians but so far has been rebuffed. On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman all but dismissed the prospects of a peace agreement anytime soon.

Obama's lack of success so far as a peacemaker comparable to the achievements of men such as Roosevelt, Wilson and Carter prompted criticism that the award was at best premature and more a signal of encouragement than recognition.

``Too fast,'' said Lech Walesa, the former Polish Solidarity leader and 1983 Peace Prize winner. ``He hasn't had the time to do anything yet. For the time being, Obama's just making proposals.''

``The real question Americans are asking is, `What has President Obama actually accomplished?' '' said Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. ``It is unfortunate that the president's star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights.''

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