Former US Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger under President George Bush senior, has died.
He was ambassador to Yugoslavia under President Jimmy Carter and later played an important role in diplomacy in the first Gulf war.
The BBC reports Mr Eagleburger, 80, gained a reputation for straight talking and disentangling complex foreign policy problems.
He was the first and so far only career foreign service officer to hold the post.
President Barack Obama said the United States had lost a distinguished diplomat and public servant.
Mr Eagleburger became Secretary of State James Baker's deputy in 1989 and took over his job in the summer of 1992 when Mr Baker resigned to work for President Bush's unsuccessful re-election campaign.
