US media and leading opinion makers yesterday had largely positive views of Barack Obama's Nobel Peace award speech in Oslo.-with US conservatives especially delighted with his choice of words.

"We've said before ... that awarding President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize after so short a time in office and so few concrete accomplishments was a mistake," wrote the Los Angeles Times in its newspaper editorial.

However the acceptance speech was "a blockbuster even by Obama's lofty standards."

The speech "should serve as a blueprint to guide international decisions on alleviating conflict, poverty and tyranny," the LA Times wrote.

For the New York Times, Obama "gave the speech he needed to give, but we suspect not precisely the one the Nobel committee wanted to hear" by constantly mentioning the Afghanistan conflict.