The former United States vice-president and co-winner of the 2007 Nobel peace award, alongside the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was handed his prize by Crown Princess Victoria, heir to King Carl XVI Gustaf's throne.

"Like no other person, he has called on mankind to save the planet," event spokesman Stefan Gadd told AFP after a ceremony attended by over 6,000 people in the south-western city.

Gore received one million Swedish kronor (105,000 euros or 155,000 dollars) in recognition of his "relentless commitment to put an end to the climate crisis by increasing public awareness about global warming".

The former 2000 presidential election candidate's double Academy Award-winning documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth' is credited with crystallising global political alarm over climate change, although he has also been accused of massaging facts to fit his environmental agenda.

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