Six countries decline Nobel invite

China and five other coutnries have declined to attend next month's 2010 Nobel Prize award ceremony in Oslo in honour of jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Institute said Thursday.The responses came following threats from Beijing of "consequences" for countries that support Liu.

Reuters

"The six who have said no are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco and Iraq," said Nobel Institute director Geir Lendestad.

It is customary to invite all ambassadors based in Oslo to attend the 10 December ceremony.

Dipomats had until 15 November to send in their RSVPs, but some have asked for more time to decide whether to come, said Lendestad. He would not say which countries were still mulling over the decision.

China was furious after the Nobel Committee had announced its decision to give the prize to Liu. He was sentenced to 11 years in prison last year on subversion charges after he co-authored a text calling for political reform in China.

China also sent a letter to foreign missions in Oslo asking them not to atttend. Most Western countries, including the United States, Britain, France and Germany have said they will attend.

Liu is in prison and will not be able to pick up his own award, but neither will his wife, Liu Xia, who is under house arrest. His two brothers are not sure if they will be able to leave China to pick up the award.

It will be the first time neither the recipient, nor one of his representatives will be present to pick up the Peace Prize medal, diploma and award of 1.04 million euros.