Emails, faxes and letters have been flowing in to the Nobel Institute in Oslo ahead of the February 1 deadline for nominations.

"I still believe very strongly in Ahtisaari," the head of the Oslo Peace Research Institute (PRIO), Stein Toennesson, told AFP.

"The peace process in Indonesia (orchestrated by Ahtisaari) is so important. He has a good chance, but everything depends on how the situation in Kosovo develops," he said.

The 69-year-old former Finnish president oversaw talks in Helsinki that led to a peace agreement in 2005 between the Indonesian government and rebels in the Aceh province. He is currently the UN special envoy for talks on the final status of Kosovo.

Ahtisaari has been nominated several times in recent years. He has a long history of peacemaking, including mediation efforts in Namibia, the former Yugoslavia and the Northern Ireland.

"The issue of global warming is also very topical and ... it wouldn't be impossible for the Nobel committee to honour a person combatting this threat. In such case, Al Gore ... seems to me to be a possible candidate," said Toennesson.

The former US vice president is currently criss-crossing the globe with his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", a hard-hitting rallying cry against global environmental catastrophe.

But after a few surprises in recent years -- the prestigious prize went to Kenyan ecologist Wangari Maathai in 2004 and the Bangladeshi micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank last year -- the committee could decide to return to a more conventional peace laureate.

"In my opinion the Nobel committee has succeeded in its desire to honour new categories of people, this year it needs to return to a more traditional Nobel," Toennesson said.

"In this case, I could see it going to a dissident, for example Lidiya Yusupova of Russia or Rebiya Kadeer of China or even Thich Quang Do," he added.

Yusupova is a Chechen human rights activist. Kadeer is the leader of China's Uighur Muslim minority living in exile in the United States, and Thich Quang Do is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk fighting for democracy and freedom of expression while living under house arrest.

Arne Liljedahl Lynngaard, the chairman of the board of the Rafto human rights foundation, also cited Kadeer as a possible laureate.

"The prize will be the last one before the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and Rebiya Kadeer would be a serious candidate if the committee wants to draw attention to the human rights situation in China," he said.

While the Nobel Institute remains tight-lipped about the list of candidates for the prize, those who nominate candidates are entitled to go public with the name of their nominee.

As a result, Indian and Latin American organisations are known to have put forth the name of Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Thousands of people are eligible to submit nominations, including members of parliament and government worldwide, as well as university professors, previous laureates and members of several international institutes.

The five members of the Nobel committee are also allowed to nominate their own candidates at their first meeting in February.

The winner of the prize will be announced in October and it will be awarded, as tradition dictates, on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the founder of the prize, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.

Last year, Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were selected among a list of 191 nominees.

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