Clinton right-hand man Christopher dies at 85

WARREN Christopher, a key figure in peace efforts in Bosnia and the Middle East as United States Secretary of State in the Clinton administration, has died. He was 85.

Christopher died late on Friday, at his home in Los Angeles, of complications from bladder and kidney cancer, according to Sonja Steptoe of the law firm O'Melveny & Myers, where Christopher was a senior partner.

A loyal democrat and meticulous lawyer, Christopher supervised the contested Florida recount for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court, on a 5-4 vote, decided for George W Bush.

As he prepared to step down as secretary, in 1996, "for someone else to pick up the baton", he said in an interview he was pleased to have played a role in making the US safer.

His proudest accomplishments, he said, included a role in promoting a ban on nuclear weapons tests and extension of curbs on proliferation of weapons technology. He also tried to promote peace in the Middle East, tirelessly travelling to the region. Christopher made some two dozen trips to Syria alone in a futile effort to promote a settlement with Israel.

He was more successful in the negotiations that produced a settlement in 1995 for Bosnia, ending a war among Muslims, Serbs and Croats that claimed 260,000 lives and drove another 1.8 million people from their homes.

Some critics said the administration had moved too slowly against the ethnic violence. Congressman Frank McCloskey, an Indiana democrat, called for Christopher's resignation and virtually accused the administration of ignoring genocide against Bosnian Muslims. A handful of State Department officials resigned in protest.

Christopher also gave top priority to supporting reform in Russia and expanding US economic ties to Asia.

While Christopher often preferred a behind-the-scenes role, he also made news as deputy secretary of state in the Carter administration, conducting the negotiations that gained the release, in 1981, of 52 Americans held hostage in Iran.

President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. "The best public servant I ever knew," Carter wrote in his memoirs.

Accepting Christopher's resignation as the nation's top diplomat, President Bill Clinton said Christopher had "left the mark of his hand on history".

As Clinton considered who would succeed him, Christopher offered the criteria he would apply if the choice was up to him."It would be somebody who has the capacity to provide forceful leadership, someone who has great tenacity, someone who has endurance and a lot of stamina," he said.

In the skies over Africa, and approaching his 71st birthday in October 1996, Christopher set a new mark for miles travelled by a secretary of state over four years, the normal length of a presidential term: 704,487.

The crew on his Air Force jet presented him with a congratulatory cake.

He is survived by his wife Marie, and his four children, from two marriages: Lynn, Scott, Thomas, and Kristen.