This year's Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced on Thursday, the Swedish Academy, which hands out the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.46 million) award, said on Monday.

Bookmaker Ladbrokes has Syrian poet Adonis as favorite to win the prize, followed by Swedish poet and writer Tomas Transtromer, a perennial tip. The Academy by tradition announces the date for the literature prize separately from those for the sciences, whose winners will also be announced this week.

The winner of the literature award, which can thrust relatively obscure authors into the international limelight, is notoriously difficult to guess, with a series of surprises in recent years. Last year's winner was Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru.

The Nobel season gets under way on Monday with the award for the prize in medicine or physiology.

($1 = 6.868 Swedish Crowns)

Nobel prize