Former President Ronald Reagan, who brought a blend of homespun humor, sunny optimism, right-wing politics and fierce anti-Communism to the White House as he presided over the end of the Cold War, died on Saturday of complications from Alzheimer?s disease.

Pope John Paul yesterday mourned his death as he shared an affinity with Reagan for moral conservativism and a vision of a world free of totalitarianism. ?The pope received the news of President Reagan?s death with sadness and prayed for the eternal repose of his soul?, Vatican chief spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.

Reagan, who died on Saturday of complications from Alzheimer?s disease, met the Polish pope four times while he was president between 1981 and 1989.

Both men were instrumental in events that led up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and also shared an unflagging stand against abortion. ?The Holy Father recalled the contribution of President Reagan to the historical events that changed the lives of millions of people, mainly in Europe?, the spokesman said. Navarro-Valls said that when the pope met President George W. Bush at the Vatican two days ago, he asked Bush to relay a message to Mrs Reagan, knowing that her husband was very sick.

The ailing 84-year-old pope, whose homeland was part of the Warsaw Pact from the end of World War Two until it started breaking apart in 1989, shared an anti-communist vision with Reagan.

Historians believe the convergence on the world scene of the first pope from a communist country, Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was the perfect political cocktail for the times.

Isolated by the debilitating brain-wasting disease from both his family and the nation whose faith in itself he is credited with restoring, the actor turned President died at his Bel-Air home in California from pneumonia.

His death at 93, more than 15 years after leaving the White House and after a 10-year struggle with Alzheimer?s that had kept him out largely of the public eye, prompted warm tributes from world leaders.

The father of Soviet Perestroika reform Mikhail Gorbachev praised Reagan, his partner on the world stage, as a great leader who dared to change the tide in relations between the Cold War superpowers. Gorbachev told Ekho Moskvy his dialogue with Reagan ?kick-started the process, which ultimately put an end to the Cold War.?

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ? the ?Iron Lady? to Reagan?s warm ?Great Communicator? ? called him a ?truly great American hero.?

?Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty. To have achieved so much, against such odds, and with such humor and humanity, made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero?, Thatcher said.

French president Jacques Chirac called him ?a great statesman who through the strength of his convictions and his commitment to democracy will leave a deep mark in history.?

?A great American life has come to an end?, President George W. Bush said in Paris, where is meeting with Chirac and attending 60th anniversary celebrations of the D-Day landing. Bush added : ?He leaves behind a nation he restored, and a world he helped save.?

?He was a great president who led the Cold War against communism to the victory of freedom and democracy?, said former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, remarkable among world leaders for being on a first-name basis with Reagan.

<B>Tear down this wall</B>

At home, hundreds of people carrying US flags and flowers made a makeshift memorial outside the Los Angeles-area funeral home where his body was being embalmed before taken to lie in state at the Reagan library.

The library sits on the crest of a California hillside not far from implanted pieces of the Berlin Wall ? which he implored Mikhail Gorbachev in a famous speech to ?tear down this wall.?

Reagan will be given a presidential state funeral in Washington later in the week - the first since Lyndon Johnson?s in 1973.

?He made you feel safe and secure regardless of whether you voted for him or not?, John Circenif, who was among the crowd outside the funeral home, told reporters.

Republican political activist Heather Peters said: ?It would be my dream to walk in that man?s shoes. I personally don?t want to let him go.?

Members of his immediate family were at his bedside as he died, including his wife of 52 years, Nancy. He was no longer able to recognize or speak to loved ones because of Alzheimer?s.

The death ended a long, painful last chapter in a close marriage. Just last month, Nancy Reagan made a rare speech in which she described her husband?s last days suffering from Alzheimer?s. ?Ronnie?s long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him,? she said, urging support for stem cell research to help cure the disease.

Flags across the country were ordered lowered to half mast in a sign of respect for the man who effected a late 20th Century revolution in American politics, helping make Republicans the ruling party and conservatism a mainstream political philosophy.

<B>Jill SERJEANT</B>