The lawyers sent a petition to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention which argues that Liu's detention violates both international law and China's own constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression.

"Liu Xiaobo did not receive a fair trial and his wife, Liu Xia, did not have any opportunity to challenge her house arrest," said Maran Turner, executive director of Washington-based Freedom Now which is representing them for free.

"We are submitting this to the UN to present them with a legal forum to challenge their detentions," Turner told AFP.

"We urge the Chinese government to immediately release both Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia from their illegal and unjust detentions," she said.

Liu, 54, was sentenced to 11 years in prison last December on subversion charges after co-authoring Charter 08, a petition calling for sweeping political reform that has been circulated online and signed by thousands.

Liu Xia, a poet who has vocally supported her husband's work, was put under house arrest soon after the Nobel Peace Prize was announced in October.

The UN panel, part of the Human Rights Council, is comprised of experts from around the world tasked with independently investigating cases of arbitrary detention around the world.

Its findings have no binding power. It found last year that Myanmar was breaking its own law by detaining democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.

Turner estimated that the response from the UN panel on Liu Xiaobo and Liu Xia would take eight to 10 months.

China voiced outrage when Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, saying the move by the Norwegian committee was tantamount to "encouraging crime."

Nobel laureates have joined forces in urging China to release Liu. In a recent opinion piece in The Washington Post, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech president Vaclav Havel said China should view Liu with pride as the first Chinese Nobel Peace laureate.

US lawmakers and activists have urged President Barack Obama -- last year's Nobel Peace Prize winner -- to appeal for Liu's freedom when he meets his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao on the sidelines of a summit in Seoul next week.

Rights groups strongly criticized UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for not raising Liu's case on a recent visit to Beijing. The UN leader's spokesman countered that Ban raises human rights when the timing is "appropriate."

China said that French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not address Liu's case on Thursday when Hu began a state visit to Paris in which the two countries signed industrial deals worth 20 billion dollars.

Beijing has in recent years criticized France for its advocacy of human rights, including Sarkozy's hesitation at attending the Beijing Olympics and his meeting with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

Liu on Wednesday received another prize when New York-based Human Rights Watch bestowed on him the Alison Des Forges Award, named after a late expert on Rwanda's genocide.

Human Rights Watch honored Liu and five others who "put their lives on the line to protect the dignity and rights of others." Renee Xia of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists, accepted the award on Liu's behalf.

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