Former Georgia President Eduard Shevardnadze has died aged 86, BBC News reported.

His aide Marina Davitashvili said he had passed away on Monday, June 7 after a long illness.

In 1992 he became the head of state of the newly independent republic of Georgia.

He led the country out of instability and civil war but in November 2003 was toppled in the "Rose Revolution" sparked by opposition allegations of irregularities in parliamentary polls.

Born in 1928 in the city of Lanchkhuti, Mr Shevardnadze joined the Communist Party's youth movement in 1946 and became the party's head in Georgia in 1972.

In 1985, he became foreign minister of the Soviet Union under reformist leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

He resigned from the post in 1990 before briefly taking it up again in 1991 as the country was disintegrating.

After returning to Georgia he managed to quell a civil war but was seen as having failed to tackle corruption.