Obituary: François Giuliani

UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Giuliani, who was French, died after a brief illness. Officials said he was on vacation at the time in Bruges, Belgium.

Giuliani worked as a correspondent in London and Africa for 10 years before joining the UN in 1971.

In 1976 he was appointed spokesman for then secretary-general Kurt Waldheim. He performed the same role for Waldheim's successor, Javier Perez de Cuellar and, for one year, for Boutros Boutros Ghali.

In 1996 he left the United Nations to become director of press and public relations for New York's Metropolitan Opera. He retired from the Met in 2006.

Born in Algiers, Giuliani was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Oxford University. ■