by Giles Hewitt

BEIJING, Feb 20 (AFP) - China's paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, whose historic reforms made him a seminal 20th century figure, died at the age of 92, the Chinese authorities announced early Thursday.

Deng died at 9:08 p.m (at 1308 GMT) Wednesday in Beijing from respiratory failure caused by the advanced stages of Parkinson's disease, the official Xinhua news agency said.

President Bill Clinton led world tributes to Deng's reforms and opening of China to the outside world.

The news agency cited a joint announcement made by the country's top party and government organisations, including the Communist Party central committee and the standing committee of the National People's Congress.

The announcement spoke of the "profound grief of the whole party, the whole army and the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country" at Deng's death.

"Our beloved comrade Deng Xiaoping, who had suffered the advanced stage of Parkinson's disease with complications of lung infections, passed away because of the failure of the respiration circulating functions after failing to respond to emergency treatment," Xinhua said.

While eulogising Deng as the chief architect of China's reform and opening policy that turned the country into one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the announcement also lauded his socialist credentials.

"He was a great Marxist, a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman, military strategist and diplomat, and a long-tested communist fighter," it said.

The Chinese Communist Party also urged national unity after the leader's death.

Deng is survived by his wife, Zhuo Lin, as well as two sons and three daughters.

A separate Xinhua despatch said Deng's funeral committee had already been selected with President Jiang Zemin as its chairman.

The committee contains 459 members and includes leaders from top government and party organisations.

No date was given for the funeral and Xinhua did not specify if Deng would be buried or cremated.

Tiananmen Square, the symbolic heart of Chinese political life, was deserted just hours after the death announcement, which moved on Xinhua at 2:

44 a.m. (1844 GMT).

Soldiers guarding the square, which is always closed to the public overnight until 4:30 a.m., at first refused to believe the news of Deng's death when informed by an AFP reporter.

The streets around the square, which lies in the centre of Beijing next to the Forbidden City, were completely deserted.

The area around Deng's private residence in the north of the capital was also quiet, with just two armed soldiers guarding the entrance.

Deng's death meant that he failed by only a matter of weeks to fulfil one of his greatest wishes, to witness the return of Hong Kong to China on July 1 after more than 150 years of British rule.

It was Deng who put forward the concept of "one country, two systems" whereby Hong Kong will keep its capitalist lifestyle and is promised a high degree of autonomy from Beijing.

Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten voiced his regrets at Deng's death in a statement. "Deng Xiaoping has been the principal architect in recent years of China's modernisation and opening to the outside world," he said.

Hong Kong's six million people appreciated Deng for the assurance at least until the June 1989 massacre of pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, which he personally sanctioned.

The massacre will remain the one great blemish on the copybook of the man who was voted Time magazine's 'Man of the Year' in the early 1980s.

As tributes began to flow, US President Bill Clinton hailed Deng's decision to open his country to the outside world.

"I was saddened today to learn of the death of Deng Xiaoping, China's senior statesman," Clinton said in a statement issued in the northeastern US city of Boston where he was giving an address.

"Mr. Deng's long life spanned a century of turmoil, tribulation and remarkable change in China.

"He spurred China's historic economic reform program, which greatly improved living standards in China and modernized much of the nation," Clinton said.

Meanwhile, the Taiwan defence ministry said it was closely monitoring troops movements across the straits and had prepared counter measures.

In London, a government spokesman praised the "crucial part" Deng played in the development of an "economically dynamic and successful China," and hailed his "visionary concept" on Hong Kong.

"From the 1920s, Deng played a prominent role in the the development of a modern China, in particular from the end of the 1970s," the spokesman said. "Deng's initiatives played a crucial part in creating today's economically dynamic and successful China."

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was due to travel to China Monday.

There was no word on whether those plans might be modified.

French President Jacques Chirac said: "Deng Xiaoping will go down in history as the main architect of the changes which China has undergone in the past 20 years."

Chirac paid the tribute in condolence messages to President Jiang Zemin and Deng's widow, Zhuo Lin, the Elysee Palace said.

Chirac recalled that France was home to Deng, along with other future Chinese leaders, in the early 1920s.

"In the course of this century, few men will, like him, have embarked a vast human community on such profound and decisive changes," he said.

However, not all the reactions were so positive.

"The Deng era has changed the face of China, but human rights improvements have lagged far behind economic reform," said Rory Mungoven, director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific programme.

"His legacy also includes a well-oiled machinery for repression, where the law is used as a weapon against dissent," Mungoven said.

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, offered an ambivalent assessment of his long-time adversary, saying the question of whether Deng's life benefitted China or not had to be answered by "unbiased" historical research.

"Only then will it become clear how much of the result of his work has been good or bad," the Dalai Lama said.

"I have nothing special to say about this," he added.