Nixon's foreign policy chief dies

The Rogers Plan was superceded by Jimmy Carter's 1979 success

Former US Secretary of State William Rogers has died at the age of 87.

Mr Rogers, who served under President Nixon between 1969-1973, was best known for his proposals for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank to its 1967 borders.

A spokesman for law firm Clifford, Chance, Rogers and Wells - in which Mr Rogers was a partner - said he had died of congestive heart failure on Tuesday night in hospital in Bethesda, Maryland, after a period of ill health.

Rogers rememberedhis boss Richard Nixon with mixed feelings

The Rogers plan, as it became known, was rejected by Israel and Egypt when it was put to them in 1970, but has formed the basis of more recent peace initiatives, including swapping land for peace and shared control of Jerusalem.

Mr Rogers was for five decades a public official and private attorney.

As a lawyer, he represented Martin Luther King Jr before the Supreme Court in a landmark libel case.

He served in two Eisenhower administrations, first as deputy attorney-general from 1953-57 and then as attorney-general from 1957-61.

Although a close friend and adviser to Richard Nixon for many years, William Rogers was often overshadowed in his role as secretary of state by Henry Kissinger.

President Nixon's national security adviser played a secret and leading foreign policy role, notably in the landmark thaw in relations with communist China.

Mr Rogers remembered President Nixon with mixed feelings.

"I never before had a friend who turned out to be not quite a friend," he said in a 1997 interview.

He is survived by his wife, Adele, three sons and a daughter.