Stockholm - The finding of cervical cancer virus and the discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) were awarded Monday with the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

German Harald zur Hausen was awarded for discovering the human papilloma virus which causes cervical cancer, while French scientists Francoise Barre-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, were awarded for their discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

The award, the highest for medicine, is worth 10 million kronor (1.5 million dollars, 1 million euro). Zur Hausen won half the amount while the French duo shared the other half.

The two viruses have caused "great suffering," Professor Bjorn Vennstrom of the Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute, told Swedish radio.

The discovery of the HIV virus helped researchers understand the "biology of the disease and its antiretroviral treatment," the Karolinska Institute said.

Zur Hausen's discovery led to the development of a vaccine against cervical cancer, the second most common cancer among women. Born in 1936, he worked as professor and former chairman and scientific director of the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg up to his retirement.

About about 5 per cent of all cancers worldwide are attributed to human papilloma virus.

Some 500,000 cervical cancer cases are reported each year.

Of the 100 human papilloma viruses, zur Hausen was able in 1983 and 1984 to identify two types, HPV16 and HPV18, that cause 70 per cent of all cancers of the cervix, the opening to the uterus.

The vaccines offer almost 95 per cent protection, and "reduce the need for surgery and the global burden of cervical cancer," the institute said.

"Cervical cancer is more common in developing countries, and mortality rates are much higher than in the west," Vennstrom added, saying the Karolinska Institute had no position on whether or not it should recommend the general vaccination of young girls.

Asked why US researcher Robert Gallo - who was engaged in a long-running debate with Montagnier over the HIV discovery - was not included in the prize, Bertil Fredholm, head of the Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute, told reporters that the groundbreaking research "had been made in France."

Karolinska Institute members were "the experts" on matters concerning the decision on who was worthy of a Nobel prize, he added.

Barre-Sinoussi, born in 1947, holds a PhD in virology and heads the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Montagnier was born in 1932 and is retired Professor and Director at the Paris-based World Foundation for Aids Research and Prevention.

The findings by the two French researchers had contributed to improve efforts to diagnose patients, and to screen blood that has limited the spread of the pandemic.

Antiviral drugs have further increased life expectancy rates.

Professor Bo Angelin, also of the Karolinska Institute, said the findings in the two areas of virus had helped develop measures "to attempt to prevent the spread the diseases."

The medicine prize is the first of this year's Nobel awards, which are also made for chemistry, physics, literature, and peace.

They were endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.

The economic sciences prize - a prize not endowed by Nobel and awarded since 1968 - is slated to be announced October 13.

The award ceremonies are held December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's 1896 death in San Remo, Italy.