A French writer whose works are characterised by �poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy� has won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature.

A French writer whose works are characterised by "poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy" has won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Marking another win for a European writer in the world's most distinguished cultural award, the prize has gone to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio, 68, the first French writer to win the award since 2000, and the 14th from his country since 1901.

The decision was in line with the Swedish Academy's recent picks of European authors and followed days of debate about whether the jury was anti-American.

The last US writer to win the prize was Toni Morrison in 1993, and last week Horace Engdahl, the secretary of the academy, said that the United States is too "insular" to challenge Europe as the centre of the literary world.

The comments ignited a fierce reaction in America, where the head of the US National Book Foundation offered to send Engdahl a reading list of US authors.

Last night Nicolas Sarkozy, the President of France, hailed Le Clezio's win as a sign of France's worldwide cultural influence.

He said: "A great traveller, he embodies the influence of France, its culture and its values in a globalised world."

The academy called Le Clezio an "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization."

Le Clezio made his breakthrough as a novelist with Desert, in 1980, a work the academy said "contains magnificent images of a lost culture in the North African desert contrasted with a depiction of Europe seen through the eyes of unwanted immigrants".

The Swedish Academy said Le Clezio from early on "stood out as an ecologically engaged author, an orientation that is accentuated with the novels Terra Amata, The Book of Flights, War and The Giants".

Le Clezio said he was humbled by the honour and that he was "very touched and very emotional".

He described himself as "born of a mix, like many people currently in Europe". He said while he was born in France, his father was British.

He was already planning to travel to Sweden later this month to receive another award - the Stig Dagerman prize, which honours efforts to promote the freedom of expression.

Since Japan's Kenzaburo Oe won in 1994, 12 Europeans have won the prize. Asked how he thought the choice of Le Clezio would be received in the US, Mr Engdahl said he had no idea.

"He's not a particularly French writer, if you look at him from a strictly cultural point of view. So I don't think this choice will give rise to any anti-French comments," he said. "I would be very sad if that was the case."

Le Clezio was born in Nice in 1940. He studied English at Bristol University in 1958-59 and completed his degree at the Institut d'etudes Litteraires in Nice.