Nobel candidate Gore speaks in Norway

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Al Gore had a chance to impress the head of the secretive awards committee Thursday with his presentation on climate change in Oslo.

The former vice president turned environmental campaigner presented a slide show on global warming, also covered by his Oscar-winning film "An Inconvenient Truth," at a conference in the Norwegian capital.

Among the audience at the Oslo congress center was the chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize committee, Ole Danbolt Mjoes.

"I really have been wanting to see that show for a long time," Mjoes said before Gore's speech, stressing that he was attending "as a private person" and did not plan to meet with Gore. He was seated at the back of the room.

Mjoes, who lives in the Arctic city of Tromsoe, said he had flown down to the capital to see another speaker at the conference on corporate social responsibility _ 2006 Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus. The Bangladeshi economist was awarded the prize for creating microcredit, a system of tiny loans to the poor.

"I came here to listen to Yunus," said Mjoes, a professor of medicine at the University of Tromsoe. Mjoes said he learned after arriving that Gore would hold his climate change presentation.

Gore was in Oslo anyway to promote his book on climate change, and agreed only about a week ago to give his presentation at the conference.

Mjoes declined to discuss Gore's prospects for the prize, or even his campaign to draw attention to climate change, in keeping with committee policy of secrecy.

The peace prize committee gives no hints and will not even say who has been nominated, keeping the list secret for 50 years. It only releases a number of candidates, 181 this year, and the winner or winners in mid-October.

Gore's candidacy only became known because two Norwegian lawmakers announced he was their choice as the nomination deadline ran out on Feb. 1.

Gore has been a frequent visitor to this wealthy Nordic nation of 4.6 million people, with visits to Oslo in September to promote his film, to the southern city of Kristiansand for a climate meeting earlier this month, and Oslo on Thursday to promote his new book.

However, there seems little chance of a link between his visits and any dreams of winning the peace prize, since the trips were planned well ahead of his Nobel nomination being announced.