Oslo, Norway - Nuclear watchdog agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei warned Saturday in accepting the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize that humanity faces a choice between nuclear weapons and survival.

ElBaradei shared the coveted award with his International Atomic Energy Agency - cited for their drive to control the spread of nuclear weapons, especially to terrorists.

"I have no doubt that if we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security," ElBaradei said in his acceptance speech.

The 63-year-old Egyptian and the IAEA's Board of Governors Chairman Yukiya Amano, from Japan, accepted the award 60 years after the 1945 atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

Six decades later and 15 years after the end of the Cold War, the threat of nuclear nightmare remains strong, ElBaradei said. The world community is deeply concerned about possible atomic weapons programs in Iran and North Korea, and terrorists' increasingly sophisticated efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.

"The Nobel Peace Prize is a powerful message," ElBaradei said. "A durable peace is not a single achievement, but an environment, a process and a commitment."

He said the world's security strategies have not caught up with the risk it is facing.

"The globalization that has swept away the barriers to the movement of goods, ideas and people has also swept with it barriers that confined and localized security threats," he said.

ElBaradei and Amano, representing the agency, accepted their Nobel gold medals and diplomas at a gala ceremony before about 1,000 guests, including Norway's King Harald V and Queen Sonja, at the Oslo city hall.

The award also includes 10 million Swedish kronor (euro1 million; US$1.3 million). ElBaradei said his half will go to orphanages in his native Egypt, while the IAEA plans to establish a fund for cancer and nutritional research.