Pope John Paul II was the hottest tip as winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize after the secretive committee sealed its verdict to be announced in 10 days time.
The Director of the Nobel Institute, Geir Lundestad, refused to be drawn on the committee's discussions, beyond saying the result would be announced on 10 October.
Speculation about the Nobel prize has been fueled by the Pope's deteriorating health. Stein Tonnesson, the director of the independent Peace Research Institute in Oslo, said the Pope was the most likely winner, although he thought the committee wanted a Muslim winner. "No Muslim candidate sent a message of peace in Iraq ... to the same degree as the Pope," he said.
The Pope was a stalwart opponent of the war in Iraq. Despite his poor health he mounted a sustained diplomatic campaign of resistance, sending envoys to Baghdad and Washington and welcoming Saddam Hussein's foreign minister Tariq Aziz, a Christian, for talks in the Vatican.
Rumours of the Nobel award came the day after the Pope made arrangements for what one insider called his "final sprint". On Sunday he announced the appointment of 31 new cardinals, who are to take office in October, four months ahead of schedule.
The 83-year-old Pope's health has deteriorated sharply in recent weeks. He has been suffering from Parkinson's disease for a decade, but rumours last week that he also has intestinal cancer have not been denied by the Vatican.
The decision to hold a consistory, the ceremony during which the appointment of new cardinals is confirmed, next month instead of in February as planned was interpreted by Vatican observers yesterday as a sign that the Pope knows "his days are numbered".
It is the conclave of cardinals, meeting a fortnight after a Pope's death, which chooses the successor to the throne of St Peter.
An Italian Vatican expert wrote yesterday that the decision to hold the consistory four months ahead of schedule was strongly rumoured to have been at the insistence of the Pope himself. His October calendar is already crowded with important events, including the silver jubilee of his papacy on 16 October and the beatification of his old friend Mother Teresa three days later. But the advice of those around him to schedule the Consistory not earlier than December was brusquely rejected. "John Paul didn't want to know," he wrote.
Those who see him close up report that the Pope's enormous energy is finally failing. He struggles to read aloud for more than five minutes at a stretch and has lost a lot of his spontaneity. The papal biographer, Marco Politi, quoted him as saying, "My travelling days are done." One of the newly appointed cardinals, Archbishop Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, France, told Europe 1 Radio yesterday, "The Pope is reaching the end of the road. It's a big responsibility for us. The Pope is in really bad shape."
The Pope has forced himself on through many years of ill health by giving himself new goals. The major milestones next month - his jubilee and the beatification of Mother Teresa - may have given him the will to continue thus far. Thus far, but perhaps no further.