The "Confucius Peace Prize" will be awarded on Thursday to former Taiwan vice president Lien Chan, one of its organisers, Tan Changliu, told AFP.

Tan declined to give details about who was behind the award but denied that his group had any link with China's government.

However, the prize will be awarded just one day before the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo to honour Liu and comes as China has stepped up already fierce criticism of the Nobel Committee.

Deeply embarrassed that the committee honoured a man opposed to its one-party rule, Beijing has placed Liu's wife Liu Xia under house arrest, warned other countries not to attend the ceremony and said ties with Norway would suffer.

On Tuesday, a Chinese government spokeswoman referred to members of the committee as "clowns" and said most of the world opposed Liu's award -- a claim rejected by the committee.

Tan said the Confucius Peace Prize features a cash award of 100,000 yuan (15,000 dollars).

There was so far no indication Lien would come to receive the prize, he said.

"We have contacted Lien Chan but as of now we have no news on whether he would come himself," he said.

Lien, who also is honorary chairman of Taiwan's ruling Kuomintang party, has served as an unofficial interlocutor between Beijing and Taipei in the absence of official ties.

The two sides split after a civil war won by Mao Zedong's Communists in 1949 but relations have dramatically improved in recent years.

Tan declined to give further information. The award was announced on a Chinese Buddhist website.

It said other candidates included South African democracy icon and Nobel peace laureate Nelson Mandela, software tycoon Bill Gates and the Panchen Lama, the second-highest ranking figure in Tibetan Buddhism.

The 20-year-old Panchen Lama -- whose real name is Gyaincain Norbu -- was chosen by Beijing for the post after it rejected a boy selected by the exiled Dalai Lama, whom China vilifies as a separatist seeking Tibetan independence.

That boy has since disappeared into Chinese custody.

Lien's spokesman Ting Yuean-chao told AFP his office had received no word on the prize and would not comment.

Liu, a writer and academic who has boldly fought for human rights and reform of China's one-party political system for more than two decades, was jailed in December 2009 for 11 years on subversion charges.

He was announced as the Nobel winner in October but no one is expected to be on hand to accept the award on his behalf as many of Liu's fellow dissidents and supporters have been warned not to attend or have been physically prevented from leaving China, activists have said.

An AFP photographer on Wednesday saw heavy security at the apartment complex where Liu Xia lives.

earlier related report
Pressure mounts on Serbia to reconsider Nobel boycott
Belgrade (AFP) Dec 8, 2010 - Serbia came under mounting pressure Wednesday to reconsider, for the sake of its EU integration, a decision to boycott the Nobel peace prize ceremony in order not to upset ties with China.

Its decision to avoid Friday's ceremony for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo triggered sharp rebuke from the European Union, with lawmakers and rights activists at home calling on the pro-European government to explain.

In Brussels EU enlargement spokeswoman Angela Filote said any country that aspired to join the bloc was expected "to fully share the values of the EU, and protection of human rights is one of (its) fundamental values."

EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele may raise the issue during a meeting with Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic on Thursday, she added.

"We're concerned about this action and we're going to talk with our counterparts to see if it's possible to hear a different decision," Filote said.

Apart from Russia, Serbia and Ukraine are the only European countries boycotting the ceremony which China, furious over the award to its dissident, demanded should be shunned. EU membership is a priority for Serbia.

In Belgrade parliament's foreign affairs committee asked Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic to explain the decision in person, with senior MPs allied to the ruling coalition making their displeasure known.

"We are fully entitled to demand an explanation for any foreign policy decision on an important issue," said Nada Kolundzija, the parliamentary head of the Coalition for European Serbia, the senior ruling partner.

The opposition liberals and social democrats also asked for an official explanation, warning of "political consequences of such decision," the Tanjug news agency said.

Jeremic admitted the decision was prompted in part by a desire to keep on side with Beijing.

"China is a proven friend of Serbia (and)... this decision represents the state interest of Serbia in the best way in this moment," Jeremic told private B92 television.

"This was not an easy decision and it might not leave the best feeling in the stomach, but after a long consideration we have opted for such a move," he said.

The Chinese ambassador in Belgrade, Wei Jinghua, said meanwhile China "highly appreciates Serbia's decision," local media reported.

A group of prominent human rights non-governmental organisations, including Humanitarian Law Centre and Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, said meanwhile that the government had made a diplomatic blunder.

"By such a decision Serbia's leadership shows that it does not understand modern international relations, treats human rights with disdain and gives priority to blackmails and not to the values recognised throughout the world," the NGOs said in a joint statement.

There was also criticism from within the foreign ministry with the head of an advisory body known as Foreign Policy Council, Sonja Liht, quoted as saying the decision was "wrong" as respect of human rights and other European values were integral to the ruling coalition's electoral platform.

But Jeremic said he expected "that this will not give a fatal blow to our European future. It would be really scary if such a move... would lead to interruption of our European integrations."

"I do not expect that to occur, although I fully understand dissatisfaction in some European capitals, including Brussels," he said.

"This is not a decision that makes us happy in any way," Jeremic added, refusing however to explain if it was made under Chinese pressure.

A total of 19 countries, including Russia, Cuba, Venezuela, and China itself, have decided to shun the event.

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