Stockholm - Australian writer Sonya Hartnett on Wednesday accepted the 2008 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a literary prize created in honour of the Swedish creator of numerous popular fiction characters including Pippi Longstocking.

Swedish Crown Princess Victoria handed over the prize at a ceremony at the Skansen open-air museum in Stockholm, also attended by Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth who said she believed "reading can contribute to a better world" through a better "understanding of others and yourself."

Worth 5 million kronor (790,000 dollars), the prize is one of the largest literary awards for children and young people.

To the delight of the audience Melbourne-born Hartnett expressed her "great thanks" for the honour in Swedish, later disclosing she had practiced on the sentence when walking her dog.

The jury said Hartnett, 40, was "one of the major forces for renewal in modern young adult fiction," citing her "psychological depth."

The jury also highlighted her "linguistic virtuosity and a brilliant narrative technique."

The author was selected out of 155 candidates from 61 countries for the prize. She made her debut at 15 with Trouble All the Way and has written 18 novels, mainly in the teen and young adult fiction genre.

In 2002 she won the Guardian Children's Literature Prize in Britain for Thursday's Child.

Her latest novel is The Ghost's Child.

The Swedish government created the prize to award writers, illustrators of literature for children and young people and those who promote reading through work that reflects the spirit of the Swedish author Lindgren who died 2002 at age 94.

Previous winners include the book bank Banco del Libro of Venezuela for efforts to promote reading, US author Katherine Paterson, and Japanese illustrator Ryoji Arai and British author Philip Pullman who shared the award in 2005.

Brazilian author Lygia Bojunga won in 2004, while Austrian author Christine Nostlinger and US author and illustrator Maurice Sendak shared the prize when it was first awarded in 2003. (dpa)