World reacts to Thatcher's death

Margaret Thatcher with U.S.S.R. President Mikhail Gorbachev (left) during an all-European top-level meeting. Source: Supplied

FORMER British prime minister Margaret Thatcher was a "great politician" who will go down in history, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev said.

Baroness Thatcher has died at the age of 87 following a stroke.

"Margaret Thatcher was a great politician and a bright individual. She will do down in our memory and in history," the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who held frequent meetings with Baroness Thatcher at the end of the Cold War, told Interfax.

"Thatcher was a politician whose words carried great weight," he added, calling her death "sad news".

"Our first meeting in 1984 gave the start to relations that were at times difficult, not always smooth, but which were serious and responsible for us both," he added.

Poland's former president and anti-communist freedom icon Lech Walesa also hailed the late former British leader.

"She was a great person. She did a great deal for the world, along with (late US president) Ronald Reagan, pope John Paul II and Solidarity, she contributed to the demise of communism in Poland and Central Europe," an emotional Mr Walesa said.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher dies at age of 87 following a stroke, a spokesman for the family said. Rough Cut (no reporter narration)

"I'm praying for her," the founder of the anti-communist Solidarity trade union said.

European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso also paid tribute to Baroness Thatcher's "contributions" to the growth of the EU, despite her reservations about continental European integration.

Expressing his "deepest regrets" to the UK government, Mr Barroso said she had been "a circumspect yet engaged player in the European Union" who "will be remembered for both her contributions to and her reserves about our common project".

US President Barack Obama said America had lost a "true friend" and the world a champion of freedom and liberty.

"As an unapologetic supporter of our transatlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve we could win the Cold War and extend freedom's promise," Mr Obama said in a written statement.

Mr Obama - who turned 29 and was elected editor of the Harvard Law Review in 1990, the year Baroness Thatcher lost power - said Britain's first woman leader was an example to girls that "there is no glass ceiling that can't be shattered."

"With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend," Mr Obama said.

Former US President George W Bush said Baroness Thatcher "was an inspirational leader who stood on principle and guided her nation with confidence and clarity".

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