AUSTRIAN RIGHT WINGER DIES IN CRASH

Police official Friedrich Hrast said the accident happened in the south of the country when Haider's car veered off the road near the city of Klagenfurt and overturned. He suffered severe injuries to his head and chest and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, Mr Hrast said. Mr Haider was alone in the car at the time of the accident.

The charismatic Mr Haider was governor of the province of Carinthia and leader of the far-right Alliance for the Future of Austria.

"For us, it's like the end of the world," Mr Haider's spokesman, Stefan Petzner, told the Austria Press Agency.

Austrian President Heinz Fischer described Mr Haider's death as a "human tragedy."

In 1999, Mr Haider received 27% of the vote in national elections as leader of the Freedom Party. The party's subsequent inclusion in the government led to months of European Union sanctions as Mr Haider's statements were seen as anti-Semitic or sympathetic to Adolf Hitler's labour policies.

Mr Haider had since significantly toned down his rhetoric and in 2005 broke away from the Freedom Party to form the new alliance, meant to reflect a turn toward relative moderation.

Over the summer, he staged a comeback in national politics and helped the alliance significantly improve its standing in September 28 national elections.

Mr Haider sought to distance himself from his rightist past, which included a comment in 1991 that the Third Reich had an "orderly employment policy" and a 1995 reference to concentration camps as "the punishment camps of National Socialism".

He is survived by his wife, two daughters and his mother, whose 90th birthday he and his family had planned to celebrate over the weekend.