Weinberger, who served as defense secretary from 1982 to 1987, had been treated at a hospital in Bangor, Maine, according to Fox News.

Officials at Eastern Maine Medical Center declined to comment, as government officials paid tribute to the former defense chief.

"Cap Weinberger was a friend. His extensive career in public service, his support for the men and women in uniform and his central role in helping to win the Cold War leave a lasting legacy," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters at the Pentagon.

"Cap Weinberger was an indefatigable fighter for peace through strength," former US secretary of state Colin Powell told Fox News. "He served his nation in war and peace in so many ways.

"For me, he will always be the leader, standing alongside president Ronald Reagan, who restored pride in the military, got the resources to make the all-volunteer force the best in the world, and rebuilt the American armed forces, helping to persuade the Soviet Union that it was time to end the Cold War," said Powell, who worked under Weinberger at the Pentagon.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters that Tuesday was "a very sad day".

"I knew secretary Weinberger well," she said. "He was someone who encouraged me throughout my career when I was a young academic. He was a wise man, and a great public servant, and he will be missed."

Weinberger was a proponent of the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed "Star Wars" by its critics, which he saw as an alternative to the mutual assured destruction that previously defined the standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union.

He had a close and cordial relationship with Reagan, who often heeded his advice.

Born in San Francisco on August 18, 1917, Weinberger graduated from Harvard law school in 1941 and entered the US Army that same year, serving in the Pacific theater.

He also was active in politics, serving as chairman of the Republican Party in 1962, before becoming chairman of the Federal Trade Commission in 1970 and serving as deputy director and later director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Between 1973 and 1975, he was secretary of health, education and welfare before returning to the private sector to work for the Bechtel Group.

Despite his reputation for cost cutting, which earned him the nickname "Cap the Knife," Weinberger championed Reagan's plan to increase the Defense Department budget and modernize the US armed forces.

He supported the invasion of Grenada in 1983, after the Caribbean island's government was overthrown by a group that was believed to be a threat to hundreds of US students there.

However, he had opposed the decision to send US forces to Lebanon in 1982 to oversee the Palestine Liberation Organization's departure, due to his view that the US military should get involved only when it is vital to US interests and when the mission's objectives are clearly defined.

Noting that enlistment and retention rates were low in the all-volunteer US military and that only 60 percent of incoming personnel were high-school graduates, Weinberger also sought to increase pay and support for military personnel as a way of boosting its rolls, instead of reinstituting the draft.

After leaving his post as defense secretary, Weinberger became publisher and chairman of Forbes magazine and often wrote about military and national security issues.

In 1990, he wrote "Fighting for Peace," a book about his Pentagon years, and six years later he co-wrote "The Next War," evaluating US military capability in several possible post-Cold War scenarios. The latter featured a foreword by former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

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