• Several countries may shun Nobel ceremony
• China warns Western countries: Stay away from the Nobel ceremony, or else...

OSLO (AFP) - Six countries, including China, Russia and Iraq, have turned down an invitation for their ambassadors in Oslo to attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony in honour of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo next month, the Nobel Institute said Thursday.

"As of this morning, 36 ambassadors had accepted our invitation, 16 had not replied and six had said 'no'," Nobel Institute director Geir Lundestad told AFP.

"The six who have said no are China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Cuba, Morocco and Iraq," he added.

As each year, the Institute has invited all ambassadors based in the Norwegian capital to attend the December 10 ceremony, and the diplomats had until November 15 to say whether or not they would come.

However, following threats from Beijing of "consequences" for countries that support Liu, a number of embassies had requested more time to reach a decision on whether to participate.