World leaders unite in admiration and praise for her humanitarianism

World leaders united yesterday in tribute to Diana for her humanity and her achievements in the fields of diplomacy and peace. In the US, President Clinton said he greatly admired Princess Diana and wanted to let a time for grieving elapse before making any future call on the media to give public figures more privacy.

Mr Clinton said he and his wife Hillary, who regularly cope with intrusive media coverage, felt profoundly saddened about the "terrible accident" in Paris.

"We liked her very much," Mr Clinton said. "We admired her work for children, for people with AIDS, for the cause of ending the scourge of landmines in the world, and for her love for her children, William and Harry."

President Nelson Mandela of South Africa expressed profound shock and sympathy at the death of Princess Diana, who, he said, "captured the imagination of our people".

Mr Mandela said in a message to Queen Elizabeth that Diana would be "sadly missed as a warm, compassionate and caring person" and that the royal family "are in our thoughts and prayers at this sad time".

Diana visited South Africa last year and met Mr Mandela, who yesterday hailed her as graceful, warm, highly intelligent and committed to worthy causes.

Dozens of Diana's admirers, many of them white Afrikaners, gathered outside the British High Commission in Pretoria, laying wreathes in her memory.

President Yeltsin of Russia also praised her humanitarianism. "Princess Diana was well-known and loved by the Russians. Everyone knew about her major contribution to charitable actions, in and beyond Britain," Mr Yeltsin said in a statement broadcast by Interfax.

"Many exclusively humanitarian projects, close to ordinary people, were carried out in Russia with her direct involvement," Mr Yeltsin continued.

In Asia the shock felt at the news of Princess Diana's death was directly proportional to the exposure she had received as a world celebrity.

In Japan, for example, where the Princess of Wales appeared regularly on tabloid front pages, there was stunned disbelief, with people tuning into television for the latest reports.

In China, however, where a quarter of the world's population was never exposed to the saga of Princess Diana's private life, or to the regular diet of photographs taken by paparazzi, the reaction was much more muted.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese had never heard of her and the news of her death was not announced on Chinese television news until 10 hours after it happened.

Diana's death dominated headlines in Latin America, as governments expressed condolences to her family and paid tribute to her humanitarian work.

In Sao Paulo, the Brazilian President, Mr Fernando Henrique Cardoso, said he was "profoundly saddened" by Diana's passing and professed his "respect and affection" for her.

President Carlos Menem of Argentina sent condolences to Queen Elizabeth, expressing "the profound sorrow of the Argentine people and my own over the tragic death of the Princess of Wales". Diana spent four days in Argentina in early 1996.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Mr Jean Chretien, expressed sadness over Diana's death to her family and praised the princess's well-known humanitarian efforts.

Amid the welter of condolences, Iran struck a discordant note, calling the British princess an "element of moral disgrace". Government-run television announced her death in a news bulletin that said: "One of the elements of moral disgrace in the British court has been killed in a car accident in France."

A radical left-wing party in Sri Lanka saw a conspiracy behind the deaths and said the British conservative establishment had wished her disappearance. The New Equal Society Party said Diana was never in the "good books of the establishment" after her divorce from Price Charles.