Donald Trump could become the second successive US President to receive the Nobel Peace Prize after his name was reportedly put forward to the Nobel Institute by an unnamed American. A few thousand people around the world can submit candidates, with others this year focusing on those who had criticised Trump.

Trump was said to have been nominated last year, while still just a candidate for the Republican nomination. The coveted award however went to the President of Columbia, Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to bring an end to Columbia's long war with FARC rebels.

Other nominees this year focus on Trump's critics, AFP reported, with a member of the Peace Research Institute of Oslo putting forward the American Civil Liberties Union - a group that has vowed to fight Trump and his administration.

Pope Francis was also nominated by a small Norwegian political party, the head of which told AFP that the Pope was "one of the rare ones to stand up to Donald Trump". Others supposedly nominated include Russian President Vladimir Putin, former French President Jacques Chirac and Edward Snowden.

If Trump were to win, it would make him the second successive US President to win the award after his predecessor, Barack Obama, was handed the prize in 2009 for "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Though nominators can reveal the names of those they have submitted, the full list is kept under wraps for 50 years. The first meeting of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which picks the winner of will stake place in mid-February.

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