Pinter has called Bush a "mass murderer" and Blair a "deluded idiot" over invading Iraq.

LONDON, October 13, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Celebrated British playwright and anti-war political campaigner Harold Pinter has been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature, the Swedish Academy announced Thursday, October 13.

"[Pinter] uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms", the jury said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Pinter, who began his career as an actor, restored theatre to its basic elements, an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, "where people are at the mercy of each other and pretence crumbles", it said.

"In a typical Pinter play, we meet people defending themselves against intrusion of their own impulses by entrenching themselves in a reduced and controlled existence".

Pinter, who has just turned 75, is renowned for his exploration of domination and submission, threat and injustice in the more than 30 plays he has written.

The versatile writer, master of the silent pause, has even given his name to an adjective, Pinteresque, which describes a particular atmosphere and environment in drama.

He is also known for his campaigning against the US-led war in Iraq, calling US President George W. Bush a "mass murderer" and British Prime Minister Tony Blair a "deluded idiot".

Pinter said he was "overwhelmed" to have been awarded the 10-million-kronor (1.1-million-euro, 1.3-million-dollar) prestigious prize.

"I have written 29 plays and I think that's really enough," he told reporters outside his home in west London's plush Holland Park district.

"I think the world has had enough of my plays," he said wearing a blue cap and aided by a walking stick.

"I shall certainly be writing more poetry and I'll certainly remain deeply engaged in the question of political structures in this world."

Pinter was born in the London borough of Hackney, the son of a Jewish dressmaker.

He made his playwriting debut in 1957, with "The Room".

His conclusive breakthrough came with "The Caretaker" in 1959, followed by "The Homecoming" in 1964.

Pinter was notoriously reluctant to explain the inner workings of his plays even to his actors.

"Mind your own business. Just say the words," was a typical rejoinder to a request for illumination.

Fellow anti-war campaigners lauded the jury's choice.

"The award of this prize is important because it reflects that the forces that speak up for humanity and justice are the real voices that people want to hear," said Andrew Burgin, a spokesman for the left-wing Stop the War Coalition.

British playwrights also hailed Pinter.

David Hare called him "a brilliant choice" and Tom Stoppard said that "as a writer, Harold has been unswerving for 50 years".

An ardent cricket fan, Pinter is the 10th Briton to take home the prize.

He was seen as a possible choice this year, but not a favorite, and will now take home 10 million kronor (1.1 million euros, 1.3 million dollars).

Last year winner Austrian Elfriede Jelinek congratulated Pinter, saying she was "totally delighted" with the choice.

"Again a writer from the left and a marvelous writer" has been selected, she told the Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung.

"I am happy for him and the Academy."

Pinter, diagnosed with esophageal cancer in December 2002, has recently focused on political activism, including a virulent anti-Iraq war stance.

"I've been writing plays for about 50 years and I'm also pretty politically engaged. And I'm not at all sure to what extent that fact had anything to do with this award," he said.

"I am both deeply engaged in art and deeply engaged in politics and sometimes those two meet and sometimes they don't. It's all going to be very interesting."

Pinter was outraged by the US-backed coup against the Salvador Allende government in Chile in 1973, and was a vocal critic of the late US president Ronald Reagan and Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

More recently, he opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq and the preceding sanctions.

In October 2002, he gave a speech at a 'No War on Iraq' Liaison meeting in Parliament. Click here to read the speech.

On January 21st 2003, Pinter gave a similar speech at a Lobby of Parliament at the House of Commons on January 21st 2003. Click here to read the speech

In a 2003 poem called God Bless America, Pinter wrote: "Here they go again, The Yanks in their armored parade, Chanting their ballads of joy, As they gallop across the big world, Praising America's God."