From The Associated Press

Ethiopian Minister Meles Zenawi, an intellectual former rebel vilified by some as a dictator but praised by others as a visionary who dominated the region for two decades, died yesterday at the age of 57.

A government spokesman said Mr Meles "was abroad" when he died, without giving further details. He had not been seen in public for two months, and had been reported to have been sick in a hospital in Brussels.

"He had been recuperating well, but suddenly something happened and he had to be rushed to the ICU (intensive care unit) and they couldn't keep him alive," the spokesman said.

Mr Meles, a sharp-witted and charismatic player in the volatile Horn of Africa region, was propelled into the club of African rulers in power for more than 20 years by a landslide victory in 2010 elections, where he won 99 per cent of the vote.

From the revolutionary who fought to topple Mengistu Haile Mariam in 1991, Mr Meles created a new persona for himself as the champion of Africa's economic and environmental rights on the international scene.

But while he cast himself as the much-needed strongman capable of lifting Ethiopia out of poverty, harsher critics charged that some of his actions were reminiscent of previous ruthless Ethiopian autocrats.

Mr Meles abandoned his medical studies before he turned 20 to join the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front to fight Mengistu.

After taking over the TPLF's leadership he forged a broader coalition with other regional movements to make up the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, now the country's ruling party. With US backing, the rebellion toppled Mengistu's bloody dictatorship in 1991, a year after Mr Meles abandoned Marxism.

The diminutive Mr Meles, with his characteristic goatee and arched eyebrows, was one of the most recognisable figures on the African scene. In the final decade of his life he challenged the world's powerful and spearheaded an African push for more fairness in climate change talks.

Former US president Bill Clinton once called him a "renaissance leader", while a leaked 2009 US diplomatic cable described him as "quiet, deliberative and certainly not a 'man about town'," adding he was a "voracious reader and very introspective".

He was credited with Ethiopia's economic boom in the past decade, with economic growth shooting from 3.8 per cent in the 1990s to 10 per cent in 2010.

Mr Meles, who earned degrees in business from Britain's Open University and in economics from Erasmus University in The Netherlands, used to list his hobbies as reading, swimming and tennis.