Oslo, September 19 (RHC)-- Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009 was a “mistake” and it failed to achieve the intended goals of promoting global peace, according to the former secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee which awards the peace prize.

"Even many of Obama's supporters thought the prize was a mistake," Geir Lundestad writes in a book released in Oslo. Lundestad explains that it became impossible for the U.S. president to live up to the high expectations placed upon him by the committee.

"In that sense the committee didn't achieve what it had hoped for,” Lundestad wrote in excerpts of the book read by The Associated Press. Lundestad was director of the secretive Norwegian Nobel Institute from 1990-2015. He attended committee meetings but had no vote.

Lundestad, currently a professor of international history at the University of Oslo, said he had strong doubts before the prize was awarded to Obama. The award, which came just nine months after Obama became president, was widely criticized in the United States and rest of the world. Political commentators described the peace prize as premature because Obama had not accomplished much at the time.