The Nobel Peace Prize of 2016 is set to be awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, who called it "a gift from heaven" for his country's peace process with FARC rebels.

The prize ceremony will be held on Saturday evening in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

Al Jazeera will be talking exclusively to the Colombian president at 17:00GMT. Watch the interview live here.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee decided to award the prize to Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to an end.

The war has cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people.

Santos was named peace prize laureate on October 7, just four days after the people in Colombia in a referendum narrowly rejected a peace deal his government had reached with the FARC rebels.

Despite the outcome, Santos concluded "all wanted peace", he told a news conference at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.

"Four days later the Nobel Prize award was announced, and it came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push," he said on Friday.

"People in Colombia interpreted it as a mandate from the international community to persevere."

The recipients of the Nobel prizes for medicine, physics, chemistry and economics are also to receive their awards. The ceremonies for these prizes will be held in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.</s>In an acceptance speech that quoted an anti-war song by Bob Dylan, the 2016 Literature Laureate, Santos said Colombia itself had drawn inspiration from other peace processes such as those in South Africa and Northern Ireland.

Santos collected the prize - a gold medal, diploma and a check for 8 million Swedish crowns ($870,000) at a ceremony in Oslo's city hall for his efforts to end the conflict with Marxist FARC rebels in which 220,000 people died.

"The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so many conflicts and so much intolerance," he said, saying a U.S. academic study called it the most comprehensive of 34 peace accords signed in the past three decades.

"It proves that what, at first, seems impossible, through perseverance may become possible even in Syria or Yemen or South Sudan," he told an audience including victims of the war as well as Norway's King Harald.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, were not invited, except for a Spanish lawyer to represent them. FARC leader Rodrigo Londono had been tipped by some Nobel watchers to share the prize with Santos.

The audience applauded a group of about 10 victims attending the ceremony, after they stood after Santos introduced them.

Among them was Leyner Palacios, a man who Santos said lost 32 relatives, including his parents and three brothers, in a 2002 FARC mortar attack on a church. Palacios nodded when Santos said he had forgiven the attackers.

The peace deal almost collapsed in October after Colombian voters rejected it in a referendum, reckoning the first version was too lenient on the rebels. A revised deal was approved by Congress last month, but controversially without a referendum demanded by a big opposition party.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, a member of the five-member award committee, said in a presentation speech that Santos had been "a driving force" and that the peace process needed "all the international support it could get" after the referendum.

In his speech, received with a standing ovation, Santos quoted what he called a "haunting question" from one of Dylan's most famous songs: "How many deaths will it take 'till he knows that too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind."

The other 2016 prizes - for Literature, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics - will be presented later in Stockholm. Dylan has said he won't attend, citing "pre-existing commitments."</s>In an acceptance speech that quoted an anti-war song by Bob Dylan, the 2016 Literature Laureate, Santos said Colombia itself had drawn inspiration from other peace processes such as those in South Africa and Northern Ireland.

Santos collected the prize - a gold medal, diploma and a check for 8 million Swedish crowns ($870,000) at a ceremony in Oslo's city hall for his efforts to end the conflict with Marxist FARC rebels in which 220,000 people died.

"The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so many conflicts and so much intolerance," he said, saying a U.S. academic study called it the most comprehensive of 34 peace accords signed in the past three decades.

"It proves that what, at first, seems impossible, through perseverance may become possible even in Syria or Yemen or South Sudan," he told an audience including victims of the war as well as Norway's King Harald.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, were not invited, except for a Spanish lawyer to represent them. FARC leader Rodrigo Londono had been tipped by some Nobel watchers to share the prize with Santos.

The audience applauded a group of about 10 victims attending the ceremony, after they stood after Santos introduced them.

Among them was Leyner Palacios, a man who Santos said lost 32 relatives, including his parents and three brothers, in a 2002 FARC mortar attack on a church. Palacios nodded when Santos said he had forgiven the attackers.

The peace deal almost collapsed in October after Colombian voters rejected it in a referendum, reckoning the first version was too lenient on the rebels. A revised deal was approved by Congress last month, but controversially without a referendum demanded by a big opposition party.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, a member of the five-member award committee, said in a presentation speech that Santos had been "a driving force" and that the peace process needed "all the international support it could get" after the referendum.

In his speech, received with a standing ovation, Santos quoted what he called a "haunting question" from one of Dylan's most famous songs: "How many deaths will it take 'till he knows that too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind."

The other 2016 prizes - for Literature, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics - will be presented later in Stockholm. Dylan has said he won't attend, citing "pre-existing commitments."</s>In an acceptance speech that quoted an anti-war song by Bob Dylan, the 2016 Literature Laureate, Santos said Colombia itself had drawn inspiration from other peace processes such as those in South Africa and Northern Ireland.

Santos collected the prize - a gold medal, diploma and a check for 8 million Swedish crowns ($870,000) at a ceremony in Oslo's city hall for his efforts to end the conflict with Marxist FARC rebels in which 220,000 people died.

"The Colombian peace agreement is a ray of hope in a world troubled by so many conflicts and so much intolerance," he said, saying a U.S. academic study called it the most comprehensive of 34 peace accords signed in the past three decades.

"It proves that what, at first, seems impossible, through perseverance may become possible even in Syria or Yemen or South Sudan," he told an audience including victims of the war as well as Norway's King Harald.

The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, were not invited, except for a Spanish lawyer to represent them. FARC leader Rodrigo Londono had been tipped by some Nobel watchers to share the prize with Santos.

The audience applauded a group of about 10 victims attending the ceremony, after they stood after Santos introduced them.

Among them was Leyner Palacios, a man who Santos said lost 32 relatives, including his parents and three brothers, in a 2002 FARC mortar attack on a church. Palacios nodded when Santos said he had forgiven the attackers.

The peace deal almost collapsed in October after Colombian voters rejected it in a referendum, reckoning the first version was too lenient on the rebels. A revised deal was approved by Congress last month, but controversially without a referendum demanded by a big opposition party.

Berit Reiss-Andersen, a member of the five-member award committee, said in a presentation speech that Santos had been "a driving force" and that the peace process needed "all the international support it could get" after the referendum.

In his speech, received with a standing ovation, Santos quoted what he called a "haunting question" from one of Dylan's most famous songs: "How many deaths will it take 'till he knows that too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind."

The other 2016 prizes - for Literature, Medicine, Physics, Chemistry and Economics - will be presented later in Stockholm. Dylan has said he won't attend, citing "pre-existing commitments."</s>Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos receives the Nobel Peace Prize during joint ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm on Decmebr 10th, 2016. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen/TT

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. Literature Prize winner Bob Dylan is, as expected, not present at the ceremony in Stockholm.

The Colombian president was awarded 2016's prize for reaching a peace agreement with the FARC guerilla movement, signalling the end of a lasting over 50 years.

After an initial agreement was rejected in a national referendum in October, Santos was able to renegotiate a new peace deal with the rebels, which was signed by both sides on November 24th.

Santos used his acceptance speech in Oslo to encourage the rest of the world to approach its challenges with optimism, citing the conflict in Syria as an area he hopes will find inspiration from the Colombian peace.

"The sun of peace is finally shining in the Colombian skies. May it light up the whole world," said Santos during his speech at Oslo City Hall, according to Dagens Nyheter's report.

Santos described the Colombian peace as a ray of hope in a world plagued by conflicts such as those in Syria, Yemen and South Sudan.

"Allow me to tell you, from my own experience, that it is much harder to make peace than to wage war," said Santos.

Santos made a nod towards his fellow Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan - who has shied away from publicity around the award and is not present in Stockholm, where the award for Literature is presented - by quoting a line from 'Blowin' in The Wind'.

In Dylan's place, Patty Smith, backed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and arranged by Swedish conductor Hans Ek will sing Dylan's 1963 hit 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall' during the traditional banquet at Stockholm's Konserthuset.</s>OSLO, Norway (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos brought no members of the leftist FARC rebel group to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony because he didn’t want to “create a problem” for the Norwegian government, he said Friday.

“They will be here in heart and spirit,” Santos said of the rebel group, with whom he recently reached a peace agreement.

Santos will collect the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday for his efforts to end a 52-year-old conflict that has left more than 200,000 dead. The prize went to him alone and not the FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which is still designated as a terrorist group by many countries including the U.S.

“The FARC is not here is because I didn’t want to create a problem with the Norwegian government,” he said, adding a Spanish lawyer who served as a chief negotiator for the rebels would represent the rebels at the ceremony.

The entire FARC leadership — some 50 rebels in all — is unable to safely travel outside of Colombia because they face international arrest orders by the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges

Santos said legal procedures are underway in Colombia “in order for them to be completely free to go around the world.” He also said Colombia will ask other countries to remove the group from terror lists following the peace deal, which was formally ratified by lawmakers last week after an earlier version was rejected in a referendum.

“The EU has already taken some steps in that direction and I hope that the U.S. will take steps in that direction,” Santos said.

He denied, however, that the Colombian government has asked the U.S. to release Simon Trinidad, a FARC leader serving prison time in the U.S.

In a letter to the White House on Thursday, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham said they had learned that the Santos government had approached the Obama administration about the issue. Releasing Trinidad, they warned, would jeopardize millions in U.S. funding for implementation of the peace accord.

“We have not asked for Simon Trinidad’s liberation,” Santos said. “That has not been an official request of the Colombian government to the American government.”

The new accord introduced 50 changes to the deal that was narrowly rejected by voters in a referendum in October. Santos said he hopes Colombia’s Constitutional Court on Monday will approve a fast-track procedure to implement it.

“An impossible dream just a few years ago is now a reality,” he said.</s>STOCKHOLM -- Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, saying it helped his country achieve the "impossible dream" of ending a half-century-long civil war.

Santos received his Nobel diploma and gold medal at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, for his efforts to end a conflict that has killed 220,000 people and displaced 8 million.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is one less war in the world, and it is the war in Colombia," the 65-year-old head of state said, referring to the peace deal reached this year with leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Santos used his acceptance speech to celebrate the end of the longest-running conflict in the Americas, to pay tribute to its victims and to call for a strategic shift in another, related war -- on drug trafficking worldwide.

Just a few years ago, imagining the end of the bloodshed in Colombia "seemed an impossible dream, and for good reason," Santos said, noting that very few Colombians could even remember their country at peace.

The initial peace deal was narrowly rejected by Colombian voters in a referendum just days before the Nobel Peace Prize announcement in October.

Many believed that ruled out Santos from winning this year's prize, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee "saw things differently," Deputy Chairman Berit Reiss-Andersen said.

"The peace process was in danger of collapsing and needed all the international support it could get," she said in her presentation speech.

A revised deal was approved by Colombia's Congress on Nov. 30.

Several victims of the conflict attended the prize ceremony, including Ingrid Betancourt, who was held hostage by the rebels for six years, and Leyner Palacios, who lost 32 relatives, including his parents and three brothers, in a FARC mortar attack.

"The FARC has asked for forgiveness for this atrocity, and Leyner, who is now a community leader, has forgiven them," the president said. Palacios stood up to applause from the crowd.

The group's leaders, who cannot travel because they face international arrest warrants by the U.S., were not in Oslo. A Spanish lawyer who served as a chief negotiator for FARC represented the rebel group at the ceremony.

Colombians have reacted to Santos' prize with muted emotion amid deep divisions over the peace deal. The vast majority of Colombians didn't vote in October's referendum. For many people in big cities, Santos' overriding focus on ending a conflict that had been winding down for years has diverted attention from pressing economic concerns.

Santos in his speech referred to fellow Nobel laureate Bob Dylan, this year's winner of the literature award, by citing the lyrics of one of his most famous songs, "Blowin' in the Wind."

The president also used the Nobel stage to reiterate his call to "rethink" the war on drugs, "where Colombia has been the country that has paid the highest cost in deaths and sacrifices."

Santos has argued that the decades-old, U.S.-promoted war on drugs has produced violence and environmental damage in nations that supply cocaine, and that the effort needs to be supplanted by a global focus on easing laws prohibiting consumption of certain drugs.

"It makes no sense to imprison a peasant who grows marijuana, when nowadays, for example, its cultivation and use are legal in eight states of the United States," he said.

The other Nobel Prizes were presented at a separate ceremony in Stockholm to the laureates in medicine, chemistry, physics and economics. Dylan wasn't there -- he declined the invitation, citing other commitments.

The crowd still gave Dylan a standing ovation after a Swedish Academy member praised his work.

Information for this article was contributed by Joshua Goodman of The Associated Press.</s>STOCKHOLM (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, saying it helped make possible the “impossible dream” of ending his country’s half-century-long civil war.

In his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, Santos described the award as a “gift from heaven” and dedicated it to all Colombians, particularly the 220,000 killed and 8 million displaced in the longest-running conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

“Ladies and gentlemen, there is one less war in the world, and it is the war in Colombia,” Santos said in Oslo’s city hall.

He won the prestigious award for reaching a historic peace deal with leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, earlier this year.

But the initial deal was narrowly rejected by Colombian voters in a shock referendum result just days before the Nobel Peace Prize announcement in October.

Many believed that ruled out Santos from winning this year’s prize, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee “saw things differently,” deputy chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen said.

“In our view there was no time to lose,” she said in her presentation speech. “The peace process was in danger of collapsing and needed all the international support it could get.”

A revised deal was approved by Colombia’s Congress last week.

Several victims of the conflict attended the prize ceremony, including Ingrid Betancourt, who was held hostage by FARC by six years, and Leyner Palacios, who lost 32 relatives including his parents and three brothers in a FARC mortar attack.

“The FARC has asked for forgiveness for this atrocity, and Leyner, who is now a community leader, has forgiven them,” the president said. Palacios stood up to applause from the crowd.

FARC leaders, who cannot travel safely because they face international arrest orders by the U.S., were not in Oslo. A Spanish lawyer who served as a chief negotiator for FARC represented the rebel group at the ceremony.

Santos also used his Nobel speech to reiterate his call to “rethink” the war on drugs, “where Colombia has been the country that has paid the highest cost in deaths and sacrifices.”

Santos has argued that the decades-old, U.S.-promoted war on drugs has produced enormous violence and environmental damage in nations that supply cocaine and needs to be supplanted by a global focus on easing laws prohibiting consumption of illegal narcotics.

“It makes no sense to imprison a peasant who grows marijuana, when nowadays, for example, is cultivation and use are legal in eight states of the United States,” he said.

The five other Nobel Prizes will be handed out later Saturday at a separate ceremony in Stockholm.

Associated Press writer Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.</s>Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos signs a protocol book in the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo on Friday. At left is Colombian First Lady Maria Clemencia Rodriguez.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Friday said the Nobel Peace Prize was a “gift from heaven” and gave a “tremendous push” to reach a new agreement with FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebels.

Speaking at a news conference in Oslo on the eve of the prize ceremony, Mr. Santos said the prestigious award “came like a gift from heaven because it gave us a tremendous push” to achieve a new peace deal with FARC after Colombian voters narrowly rejected an initial agreement in an October referendum.

“People in Colombia interpreted it as a mandate from the international community to persevere, to continue striving to achieve a peace agreement,” Mr. Santos said.

The accord, signed with pens made from bullet casings on September 26 after nearly four years of talks, was supposed to be ratified in an October 2 referendum. But voters rejected it, leaving Colombia teetering between war and peace.

Five days later, Santos was announced as the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

His government and the Marxist FARC rebels then signed a renegotiated peace accord on November 24.

The country’s five-decade conflict has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and forced nearly seven million to flee their homes. Mr. Santos brought no members of the leftist FARC rebel group to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony because he didn’t want to “create a problem” for the Norwegian government. “They will be here in heart and spirit,” Mr. Santos said of the rebel group, with whom he recently reached a peace agreement.

Mr. Santos will collect the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday. The prize went to him alone and not the FARC, which is still designated as a terrorist group by many countries.

The FARC leadership is unable to travel outside of Colombia because they face international arrest orders by the U.S. on drug-trafficking charges. Mr. Santos said procedures are underway in Colombia “in order for them to be completely free to go around the world.”</s>Nobel Peace Prize laureate Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos speaks during an AFP interview before the ceremony of the Nobel Peace Prize 2016 in Oslo on December 10, 2016 (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz)

Oslo (AFP) - Hours before accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said he could offer no guarantees there would be a peace deal in place with ELN rebels before the end of his mandate in 2018.

"I cannot guarantee that we will finish before the end of my mandate," Santos told AFP in an interview in Oslo, referring to talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN), Colombia's second-largest rebel group after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"I will do my best but to establish a timeframe is always counter-productive in negotiations of this sort," he said.

Santos was awarded the 2016 Nobel prize for his peace efforts, including his bid to end a five-decade conflict with the Marxist FARC rebels that has killed more than 260,000 people, left 45,000 missing and forced nearly seven million to flee their homes.

Santos's government and the FARC signed a peace accord on November 24, after a first agreement was unexpectedly rejected by Colombians an October 2 referendum.

The peace deal calls for the FARC's disarmament and its transformation into a political movement.

But, before Colombia can have total peace, the ELN, which has 1,500 guerrillas, also has to lay down its arms.

The ELN and the government began secret talks in January 2014 to pave the way for official talks but the process has stumbled over the issue of hostages and prisoners held by the two sides.

"Kidnapping, specifically kidnapping civilians, is something that is not acceptable ... We have told them 'You have to free the people you have kidnapped in order to start public negotiations'," Santos told AFP.

"They have not complied with this demand. When they comply with this demand, we're ready to start public negotiations," he said.

The Colombian government has suspended the preparatory talks until January 10, insisting that the ELN first release hostage ex-congressman Odin Sanchez.

The ELN has meanwhile called for the simultaneous release of two imprisoned rebels who are due to be pardoned.

Santos said the hardest part of the peace process in his country was yet to come.

The period ahead "is a more difficult phase than the (negotiation) process itself, and will require a lot of effort, perseverance and humility," he said.

"A lot of coordination efforts will also be needed across the entire government to bring the benefits of peace to the regions that have suffered the most in the conflict," he added.

Santos will receive the prize on Saturday afternoon at Oslo's City Hall at a ceremony attended by the royal family, members of the Norwegian government, representatives of victims of the conflict, and two high-profile former FARC hostages, Ingrid Betancourt and Clara Rojas.
Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos receives his award in Oslo, Norway.