Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Annan told a gala audience that ``the sovereignty of states must no longer be used as a shield for gross violations of human rights.''

``What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life, all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations,'' he said in his prepared remarks.

Annan, a native of Ghana, shared this year's 100th Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations. as a whole. He received the award for bringing ``new life'' to the world body in his fight for human rights, and against AIDS (news - web sites) and terrorism.

A 63-year career U.N. official, Annan, was elected as the world's top diplomat in 1997 and reelected in June for a second five-year term that begins next month.

Calling the 20th century among the worst in history, Annan said the beginning of new century, especially the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, had disabused those who thought ''progress toward global peace and prosperity is inevitable.''

But he said he believed the mission of the United Nations in the 21st century would be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the dignity of human life, regardless of race, religion, gender or circumstances of birth.

His vision is to eradicate poverty among the poorest of the poor, prevent conflict and promote democracy and human rights.

He singled out the example of a new-born Afghan girl, whose mother would comfort her like any mother anywhere in the world. But he said that to be born a girl in today's Afghanistan was to begin life centuries away from prosperity.

``We must focus, as never before, on improving the conditions of the individual men and women who give the state or nation its richness and character,'' Annan said. ``We must begin with the young Afghan girl, recognizing that saving that one life is to save humanity itself.''

The Oct. 12 announcement of Annan's award was overshadowed by the Sept. 11 carnage of hijackers who slammed an airliner into the World Trade Center, killing more than 3,000 people in minutes a short distance from U.N. headquarters.

``We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire.If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better, and we see further, we will realize that humanity is indivisible'' with ``bonds that bind us all in pain as in prosperity,'' Annan said.

He reminded listeners that the United Nations was founded on the ashes of World War II but horrors had not subsided, citing the 1994 genocide in Rwanda or the war in Bosnia.

``A genocide begins with the killing of one man -- not for what he has done, but because of who he is, `` he said.

Quoting from the Koran, Confucius, the Jewish Talmud and the Christian Gospels, Annan repeatedly pleaded for tolerance.

``The idea that there is one people in possession of the truth, one answer to the world's ills, or one solution to humanity's needs, has done untold harm throughout history --- especially in the last century,'' he said.

``Today's real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated `` he said. ``Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another.''

``It is in this spirit that I humbly accept the Centennial Nobel Peace Prize,'' Annan told the dignitaries.