Japan's former PM Kiichi Miyazawa dies at age 87

TOKYO, Jun 28 (Reuters) Former Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, whose career stretched from Japan's defeat in World War Two through the 1990s' ''lost decade'' of economic stagnation, died today at the age of 87, his office said.

A finance expert at ease on the world stage and a diplomatic dove keen on better ties with Asia, Miyazawa first served as finance minister from 1986 to 1988, when low interest rates fueled soaring stock and land prices.

He was forced to resign from the post over a shares-for-favours scandal that ensnared his party -- only to return as prime minister three years later.

For some, Miyazawa's most enduring image was captured in 1992 when he cradled the head of U S President George Bush in his lap after Bush collapsed with the flu at a state banquet in Tokyo.

Miyazawa's tenure in Japan's top job was cut short in 1993 when ruling party rebels backed a no-confidence motion.

That sparked an election in which scandal-weary voters ousted the Liberal Democratic Party briefly for the only time in their five-decade reign.

Five years later, Miyazawa -- then a sprightly 78 -- was drafted for a rare second term as finance minister in an effort to avert a banking crisis in the world's second-biggest economy.

Miyazawa, who retired from parliament in 2003, was also a longtime advocate of better ties with Asian countries whose memories of Japan's wartime aggression and atrocities persist six decades after the war's end.

REUTERS SLD HT1325