Former Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, Austria's most popular postwar political leader and an architect of its policy of neutrality, died Sunday. He was 79.
Kreisky was being treated at Lainz hospital for a heart condition and had been in critical condition, doctors said.A Jew, Kreisky was forced to flee Austria from the Nazis but returned to become its longest-serving chancellor.
During his tenure as chancellor from 1970 to 1983, he took advantage of Austria's position as a neutral country on the border between East and West to carve a mediating role that gave his nation prominence.
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He drew criticism abroad for his Middle East policies and his ties to PLO chief Yasser Arafat, as well as for receiving Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.