Tributes poured in from around the world on Sunday for Ronald Reagan, America's 40th president and one of the dominant figures of the 20th century, following his death at the age of 93.
As the White House flag came down to half-mast and preparations were made for a state funeral in Washington, friends and ex-foes of the 'Cold War Warrior' praised Reagan, who finally lost his decade-long struggle with Alzheimer's disease on Saturday.
"He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped to save," said President George W. Bush, who was in France for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.
"America laid to rest an era of division and doubt, and under his leadership the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny."
The US and French flags flew at half-mast during the D-Day ceremonies where Bush again praised Reagan as a great leader.
Reagan's great friend and ally, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, remembered him as "a truly great American hero".
Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union denounced by Reagan as the "Evil Empire", called his US counterpart a "great president."
Reagan, who served two terms as president from 1981 to 1989 after switching a film career for politics, died at his Los Angeles mansion on Saturday from pneumonia, a family spokesman said.
Roads around his high-fenced home in the fashionable Bel Air district of Los Angeles were closed off as a hearse carrying his coffin, draped in an American flag, made its way to the mortuary where Reagan will be prepared to lie in state.
Amid the tributes, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi struck a discordant note saying he regretted Reagan died before he could stand trial for the 1986 US air strike against Libya.
Kadhafi's adopted daughter Haifa was reportedly killed in the attack carried out in retaliation for the bombing of a Berlin discotheque frequented by US servicemen. British Prime Minister Tony Blair described Reagan as "a good friend of Britain."
French President Jacques Chirac said Reagan was "a great statesman who will leave a deep mark in history because of the strength of his convictions and his commitment to democracy."
Senator Richard Luger, the Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Reagan "actually believed and articulated that our country had a special destiny, that no barriers were insurmountable because we are Americans."
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