The life and career of Robin Cook

LONDON - Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who died on Saturday, resigned from the British cabinet in 2003 because of his opposition to the Iraq war.

Cook was a tenacious political fighter whose undoubted intellect was not always matched by diplomatic finesse.

Below are some facts about Cook:

* Cook, a Scot, took over the Foreign Office in 1997 after a landslide Labour victory with a pledge to inject a new "ethical dimension" to foreign policy.

* Cook's first year in office was marked by personal embarrassment and questions over his judgment after he abruptly ended his 28-year marriage when a newspaper threatened to reveal he was having an affair with his secretary Gaynor Regan.

* Cook was blamed for marring a visit by Queen Elizabeth to Pakistan and India in 1997 by suggesting a possible mediation by Britain in the Kashmir dispute. The remarks infuriated India and the visit degenerated into a series of ill-tempered spats between British and Indian officials.

* Cook played a prominent role in Nato's 1999 campaign to force Serbian troops out of Kosovo. He later listed "defending Kosovo" as one of his greatest achievements.

* He was demoted in June 2001 after a second Labour victory and became the leader of the House of Commons, where his sharp wit and intellectual self-confidence were perhaps better employed than in the corridors of diplomacy. He quit the cabinet in 2003 in protest at the Iraq war. * Cook was fanatical about horse racing -- when asked which book he would take with him if he were banished to a desert island, he chose the National Hunt Form Book, a guide to horse racing in Britain.

* Cook was born on February 28, 1946, and had two children from his first marriage. In 1998 he married Regan. The son of a chemistry teacher, he was educated at Edinburgh University, where he studied English literature and began a career in Labour politics. He was first elected to parliament in 1974.

- REUTERS