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Azerbaijan was in mourning after the death in the United States of former president Heidar Aliyev, who towered over political life in the former Soviet republic for more than three decades.

Officials at the private hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, where 80-year-old Aliyev had been having treatment for heart failure and kidney problems, announced his death on Friday but did not reveal the cause.

As preparations began to fly his body home, attention switched to whether Aliyev's 41-year-old son Ilham, who succeeded him as president earlier this year, would be able to maintain his grip on power without his father's backing.

Azerbaijan is of strategic importance to the West because of its substantial oil reserves, and it is also seen by the US government as a friendly buffer against its neighbours Russia and Iran.

Heidar Aliyev first came to power in Azerbaijan in 1969, when he was appointed Communist Party chief of the then Soviet republic. He became the first Muslim to serve on the Politburo, the Soviet Union's ruling body.

Though he was not universally loved, he left a deep imprint on Azeri society. He was given the affectionate nickname "Baba," or grandfather.

The new Azeri president received the news of his father's death as he returned home from a summit in Switzerland. He met with key ministers on landing and then left for home, without making any comment to reporters.

There was no official word on funeral preparations, but sources close to the government said the body would be flown back at the weekend to Azerbaijan, where there would be several days of national mourning and a lying-in-state followed by a funeral with full state honours.

Local media reported that officials from the Azeri embassy in Washington were on their way to Cleveland to make arrangements for Aliyev's body to be flown home.

In Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, the news of Heidar Aliyev's death was greeted with sadness.

Television stations cancelled their scheduled programmes and instead broadcast archive footage of the former president and tributes to him.

"Azerbaijan has suffered a great loss," a sombre anchor with the private ANS television station told viewers. "Heidar Aliyev is dead but he will live on in the memory of the people, and in the work he has done for his people."

Aliyev was credited with bringing relative stability to Azerbaijan after the chaos which followed the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Many of his subjects though, blamed him for corruption on a staggering scale and complained that he rigged elections and repressed democratic freedoms.

His last act as head of state was to engineer the creation of the former Soviet Union's first political dynasty by anointing his son as his successor. Ilham Aliyev won a hotly-disputed presidential election in October this year.

Large numbers of ordinary Azeris said they would mourn Heidar Aliyev's passing.

"For me his death is a tragedy," said Aynur Safarli, a civil servant. "This is a great loss for the Azeri people."

"He is a personality who cannot be replaced. There is no other person like him in Azerbaijan. After his death people will start to appreciate what he did for this country."

Aliyev senior had not been seen in public for months and his death was widely anticipated. He collapsed live on television in April and checked into a clinic in Turkey soon after. He was transferred to the Cleveland clinic on August 6.

There is speculation that the new president, a political novice, may be vulnerable to challenges from rivals within Azerbaijan's political establishment now that his father is out of the picture.

"We must hope that the death of such a great political figure will not have a negative effect on Azerbaijan's statehood but without doubt there is such a danger," said Rashad Rzaquliyev, a political analyst.

He added: "It means that he, Ilham, is alone to stand up to the challenges of history."

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