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Adriano Boasso, a research fellow at Imperial College, London who specialises in HIV, said: “There is no doubt that both groups made enormous contributions to the discovery of HIV. The French group was first, but Bob Gallo’s work was very important as well. His disappointment is understandable, and whether it is justified is debatable.”

Professor zur Hausen’s honour, for identifying HPV as the main cause of cervical cancer, is much less controversial, and rewards a long struggle to prove its role against prevailing medical opinion in the 1970s.

Over more than a decade of experiments, the scientist successfully isolated DNA from two strains of HPV in cells taken from cervical tumours. It is now known that the sexually-transmitted virus can be detected in 99.7 per cent of the 500,000 cervical cancers that occur worldwide every year.

The discovery of HPV’s role has greatly improved the accuracy of smear tests and screening programmes. It also led to the development of two vaccines against the most dangerous strains, Gardasil and Cervarix, the latter of which is being given to school-age girls in the UK this year.

The Nobel citation said: “His discovery has led to characterisation of the natural history of HPV infection, an understanding of mechanisms of HPV-induced carcinogenesis and the development of prophylactic vaccines against HPV acquisition.”

Professor zur Hausen, 72, said he had been surprised and delighted to hear of the award this morning. “I’m not prepared for this,” he said. “We’re drinking a little glass of bubbly right now.”

Controversy aside, the HIV award is important because the role of the virus in causing Aids has been questioned by politicians such as Thabo Mbeki, who resigned last month as President of South Africa.

It will also boost the morale of scientists working on a vaccine against the virus, who have recently suffered several severe setbacks. An estimated 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV, and about 2.1 million each year die of Aids.

Professor Montagnier, who has been lecturing in the Ivory Coast, said: “It comes at a time when much progress has been done in research, but not enough because the epidemic is still there. We are in Africa. Many infected people do not have access to medicine.”

Professor Barré-Sinoussi and Professor Montagnier discovered HIV in 1983, just two years after Aids was first recognised as a distinct, new syndrome. They isolated lymph node cells from Aids patients, and isolated a novel retrovirus that they named lymphadenopathy-associated virus.

In 1984, Professor Gallo’s group identified a similar virus, and in 1985 it was confirmed that both were the same. The virus, which has since been confirmed as the cause of Aids, was renamed HIV in 1986.

While the discovery has yet to lead to a vaccine, it was pivotal to the development of tests and anti-retroviral drugs that can enable HIV-positive people to live for decades without contracting Aids.

The Nobel citation said: “The discovery was one prerequisite for the current understanding of the biology of the disease and its antiretroviral treatment...

“HIV has generated a novel pandemic. Never before has science and medicine been so quick to discover, identify the origin and provide treatment for a new disease entity. Successful anti-retroviral therapy results in life expectancies for persons with HIV infection now reaching levels similar to those of uninfected people.”

He added that the award would give valuable impetus to HIV research at a time when efforts to develop a vaccine are reeling from several recent setbacks.

Professor zur Hausen will receive half the 10 million Swedish kronor (£800,000) award, while the other half will be shared by Professor Montagnier and Professor Barré-Sinoussi.

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