Odvar Nordli, Norway's prime minister in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has died. He was 90.

Current Prime Minister Erna Solberg said Wednesday Nordli, who headed a left-leaning Labor Party government from 1976 to 1981, was "a key politician." NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, himself a former Labor prime minister from the country's largest party, said "a man with common opinions and unusual abilities has gone away."

Nordli was member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that picks winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for eight years until 1993 when he retired from politics.

He died Tuesday from prostate cancer, according to local media. No funeral plans were announced.