Geldof and Bono have campaigned for developing countries

Geldof was nominated for organising last year's Live8 charity concerts, while U2 frontman Bono was proposed for campaigning against world poverty.

Other nominees include former US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Israeli dissident Mordechai Vanunu.

Last year the $1.3m prize was won by UN atomic agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei. The winner will be unveiled in October.

The number of nominees contesting this year's prize is the second highest, after last year's record field of 199.

"It's easy to get nominated, but very hard to win," Norwegian award committee secretary Geir Lundestad told the Associated Press news agency.

This year's prize has drawn an unprecedented number of nominations from different parts of the world, including entries from countries participating for the first time.

The list of nominees includes:

• Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, for helping secure a peace deal in Aceh

• US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton

• Indian scholar Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

• Austria's SOS Children's Villages

• Former Illinois governor and death penalty opponent George Ryan

• Indian anti-child labour campaigner Kailash Satyarthi.

Mr Lundestad said 23 of the nominees were organisations.

Previous winners include US civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King (1964), Indian missionary Mother Teresa (1979) and former USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev (1990).

The award committee works in secret and announces the winner in mid-October.