PHNOM PENH • Cambodia's former prime minister, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, the current King's half-brother who spent his later years in the political shadow of his one-time rival, Prime Minister Hun Sen, has died in France at 77 years old.

The prince, whose royalist political party won elections in 1993, was ousted in a 1997 coup by coalition partner Hun Sen, who remains Cambodia's leader today.

Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said he received information from the royal palace that Prince Ranariddh had died in Paris yesterday morning after an illness.

Prince Ranariddh was the most political member of Cambodia's royal family in recent decades, continuing to lead the Funcinpec party to contest elections for years after he was ousted.

But in 2017, he dismayed Mr Hun Sen's opponents by backing the dissolution of another political party whose leader was jailed on treason charges. Prince Ranariddh said there was no option but to work with Mr Hun Sen, who now presides over a one-party Parliament.

Explaining his position, Prince Ranariddh told Reuters that year: "Hun Sen, you want or you don't want, you like him or you don't like him, he brings about this national unity."

His younger half-brother, King Norodom Sihamoni, has sat on Cambodia's throne as a constitutional monarch since the abdication of their legendary father, King Norodom Sihanouk, in 2004. The former king died aged 89 in 2012 in Beijing.

In a condolence letter to Prince Ranariddh's wife, Mr Hun Sen said his death meant "the loss of an outstanding royal dignitary who loved the nation, religion and king".

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE