Alexandru Paleologu was a Romanian diplomat

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Alexandru Paleologu, a leading Romanian intellectual, senator and diplomat, died Thursday after a long illness. He was 86.

Paleologu died at home, friends and state news agency Rompres said Friday. He was awarded a top prize for diplomatic excellency by President Traian Basescu the previous day.

Paleologu served briefly as Romania's ambassador to France after the fall of communism in 1989, but resigned after falling out with then-President Ion Iliescu over his belief that Iliescu had not distanced himself sufficiently from the communist system. He served as a senator in the Liberal Party from 1992 to 2004.

Paleologu was a founding member of the Civic Alliance, one of the first groups to press for democracy after 1989.

Early in his political career Paleologu spent five years in a communist prison for plotting against the state, and was released in the 1964 general amnesty for political prisoners.

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