The prize, named after former Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is awarded by the EU assembly annually to a person or group judged to have made a particular achievement in the field of human rights or promotion of democracy and the rule of law.

Osman, a lawyer with the Sudan Organization Against Torture who works with victims of human rights abuses in the troubled region, won the award � and the �50,000 (US$71,150) check that comes with it � ahead of slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and Chinese human rights defenders Zeng Jinyan and Hu Jia.

"Despite a high personal risk he still manages to provide help to the victims of the conflict. By awarding the prize to Osman the European Parliament wanted to recognize the work of this very couragious man," said Hans-Gert Poettering, president of the EU legislature.

Osman, 50, has provided free legal aid to victims of human rights abuses in his country for more than two decades. He was chosen unanimously for the award by the leaders of the parliament's political groups.

Belarusian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich received the prize last year. Other past winners include former South African President Nelson Mandela and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

The EU parliament said it also planned an "appropriate commemoration" of Politkovskaya � the investigative journalist and Kremlin critic killed last year � and would decide on the details during its November plenary session.

Osman, who currently serves as a member of the Sudanese parliament, has been sucessful in overturning judgements of death or amputation. He has also catalogued crimes in Darfur � at a high personal cost, as members of his family have been killed, tortured or driven out of their homes by militias, the European Parliament said.

In 2004, Osman was imprisoned by the Sudanese government for over seven months. A year later he received an award from Human Rights Watch.

More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been uprooted since ethnic African rebels in Darfur took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in 2003, accusing it of decades of discrimination and neglect. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed � a charge it denies.

The government signed a peace agreement with one rebel group in May 2006, but other rebel groups refused � and many of those groups have since splintered, complicating prospects for a political settlement of the conflict.